Together We Stand
by kassandra not cassey
Summary: Max and the flock thought it was all over, but it was only just the beginning. Now a year later some unexpected guests show up telling Max it's time to save the world, or else. But there's a catch. New characters with Faxness and Igven. Set after MR3.
1. Prologe

**Paris, France  
**

**Itex Headquarters**

**10:00pm**

"With this new central headquarters we will begin a new era. An era of perfection and brilliance, where we will rule the world!" The room, filled with over one hundred Itex leaders, burst into applause. The speaker raised her hands and signaled for silence. When the room was silent, she resumed her speech. "To accomplish this enormous task, we will go back to our old ways of making erasers. No more robotics, they had too many design flaws. Instead we will make them faster, stronger and allow them to fly more naturally. With these improvements they will make fine guards."

The lady looked out at the crowd, pleased with the reaction she got. She was the new leader of Itex, better than the last one. She was going to make the world a better place, by doing the one thing no one else could…

"Excuse me, excuse me, Mrs. Rogan, there is just one small problem. What about all the avian hybrids that are still roaming around. If those different groups meet and join, we're doomed."

Eliza Rogan looked out at the small man who stood up with a microphone in his hand. He was glairing at her with ice cold eyes that had a hint of fear in them. The man was one of the numerous scientists that worked in the United States. By the logo on his lab coat, he worked in the New York facility. Eliza stared back at him with a glare that could send someone to their death. The man flinched and shrank to the size of a child. (He wasn't actually that tall to begin with.)

"I'll tell you what I plan to do with those…nuisances. We are going to destroy them…in time. They may prove useful to my plan, but if they refuse, they will die. As for this Maximum Ride, I have a very special fate for her."

The director looked down at the file on the podium. It had a picture of none other than the famous Max. She was going to force her to do her biddings or she would die a horribly painful death. Tonight Eliza put her plan into action. To start with, she was going to shut that stupid blog of Fangs down. Let the fun began.


	2. Dreams

**A/N: Hey I hope you enjoy my story and I would greatly appreciate it if anyone who reads this would review, review, review. I reallllllllllly want to know what you guys think. **

**Rocky Mountains, Colorado. **

**Max POV**

You know when you have one of those horrible dreams that seem to play your worst nightmares. Even worse, when you know you're dreaming but can't wake up. Well that's how I feel right now. Lying on the cabin floor in my room tossing and turning, while in my dream I'm watching my flock die right before my eyes. I can feel someone trying to hold me down and wake me up, but I just can't. It SUCKS.

"Max, Max wake up. It's just a dream. Max wake up!"

Suddenly I could hear Angel's sweet seven year old voice. Then I'm awake and shaking uncontrollably. Tears are welling up in my eyes and Fangs strong arms are wrapped around me. I can hear Iggy telling me its okay while rubbing my back.

_Max, it was just a dream. Get control of yourself. If you keep crying like this the whole cabin will be underwater._

Well that's dear old dad for ya, always attempting to help. Lately it's been getting annoying. Especially when he butted into my head while I was kissing Fang. Let's just say he and I are yelling a lot now, but details on all that stuff later.

Slowly I gain control of my sobbing and sit up. Fang and Iggy are looking at me with concerned expressions on their faces. I let out a sigh and looked at the clock. It was five a.m. Well no need to go back to bed.

"I'm fine guys."

"No you aren't Max. It seems about every night you have a horrible dream that you won't wake up from, and this time Angel had to interfere to pull you out." Fang stated while helping Max stand up.

"Look why don't you just tell us what your dreams are about, it might help."

"Fang, Iggy, I'm fine. I'm just going to go and take a short flight up to the ski slope and back."

Walking out of the room and out into the cool night air was a huge relief. Can you say I'm a jerk? Yes. I hated leaving Fang and Iggy but lately they are sooooooooooo getting on my nerves with this dream stuff. Their just dreams, but Fang especially has to know what's always going on with me lately. Besides, if they really knew what my dreams were about, Fang would never let me leave the cabin again. Especially since last month.

_Max how many times do I have to tell you, it was an accident. You couldn't have done anything to prevent Nudges fall. _

_Oh yeah, I could have moved my butt instead of laying there like an idiot and listing to her scream. If Iggy hadn't been there Nudge would have died._

By now if you couldn't tell I'm flying really fast and mentally kicking myself for almost letting Nudge die. It had only been one month since Nudges near death experience with those stupid flyboys and everyone was worried about me.

_Max things are going to happen that you can't prevent. You were shocked by an electric gun. If you had gotten up, you would have died. _

"How do you know I would have died? You weren't there." I was screaming at the top of my lungs for no reason. My emotions were whacked and the only thing I could take it out on was Jeb. Suddenly a blinding pain erupted in my head and I saw a bunch of pictures flash before my eyes. Just like I used to when Jeb first started impersonating as my voice.

Then it stopped at a picture of me standing in front of our cabin and pulling out a long, sharp knife.

_Max get back to the flock right NOW. Max two is back. She's planning something. Hurry before she gets to the cabin._

As soon as the picture faded I turned around and poured on the speed. Jeb was very useful when it came to the flock's danger, and he always warned me when something bad was going to happen.

"Max two is back, I thought the whitecoats killed her? Why would she be back now?"

Flying high above the tree line, the air was crisp and clean if not a little chilly. When you're going two- hundred miles an hour it gets extremely cold. In about two minutes, the cabin came into view, with you know who standing at the front about ready to walk in. Just like the picture I saw in my head, Max 2, pulled out a knife.

In the window I saw Fang sitting on a chair while Iggy was sleeping on the couch. The sun was just rising and casting an eerie glow over my doubles hair, giving her a halo. Yeah right.


	3. Trouble With Kissing

**Fangs POV**

Watching Max just walk away was like watching someone ignoring their problems. Oh wait, that's exactly what she was doing. Being stubborn like always and pretending she's not the one with the problem.

"Come on Fang, let's go. No sense in staying here standing around like idiots."

Digging deep into my reserves for patience I reluctantly followed Iggy. All my senses were screaming at me to go and fly after Max, and yes I did say fly if you haven't been up to date with us lately.(Actually for the past few months) The last time she went out on her own she came back nearly dead with Iggy trying to support her and carry Nudge. Max really couldn't go anywhere without attracting trouble.

"Fang quit worrying, Max will be fine. You've become such a worry wart lately, just because you like Max dosen't mean you have to act like a dad."

That made me stop dead in my tracks. I did not like Max. I only liked her as a, you know. But the sight of her when she took off was sooooooooooo, no bad Fang. I don't like Max and she dosen't like me. End of story, besides if we were to like each other… no bad, bad, Fang.

"I have no idea what you're talking about Iggy. I'm just worried that those flyboys will find us again. Ever since the incident at the cliff Max and Nudge have been different."

As soon as he said Nudges name, Iggy stiffened. There was something going on between Iggy and Nudge. They had been together a lot more and Nudge seemed to only talk to Iggy. He had secretly seen Iggy and Nudge kissing once while he was being curious.

"Besides who are you to talk about liking somebody, when you obviously like Nudge."

Now it was Iggy's turn to act defiant.

"I do not like, like Nudge. We're just friends."

If the rest of the flock were awake, he would never have talked to Iggy like this, but no one else was up to hear. Angel had gone back to bed after waking up Max and Nudge and Gazzy hadn't even woke up.

"Well, if your just friends, why were you kissing Nudge last Tuesday out in the maple tree. I saw you two sneak out and followed you. So don't deny it."

I had an evil grin on my face instead of my emotionless mask. Iggy was turning the brightest shade of pink I had ever seen and was attempting to say something.

"It's okay Iggy, your secrets safe with me. I won't tell anyone."

"You better not…"

Fang glared at Iggy. What was that supposed to mean? Was Iggy really threatening me?

"…because I could just let my mouth slip, about you and Max kissing two weeks ago. I also saw you two kissing. So don't deny it."

My mouth hung open, if it could have, it would be on the floor. He had made sure no one was watching. How could Iggy have slipped past him? Okay Fang, get a grip. Just talk to him. Shout, Iggy was becoming real annoying.

"Okay, so I won't tell if you won't tell. Deal?"

"Deal. Fang I'm not going to get back to sleep, so I'm going to watch T.V."

"I'll come too."

No sense in going to bed now, I'm too wound up from Max and Iggy. Besides, everyone will be up in about an hour or two, and if Max isn't back by nine, she is so dead.

Walking to the living room, I sat down in my favorite recliner and put the foot stool up. The chair was by the window so I could look out for Max. Iggy went and slumped down on the couch and turned the T.V. on to ESPN, with in five minutes, he was out. Poor guy, he must have been realllllllllly tired.

For the next hour I sat and watched T.V. occasionally dozing off then waking up to "so do you think he'll return to the NBA?" It got real annoying, so I ended up turning off the T.V. and resting my eyes.

I was just in a half dream state, when a loud thump woke me up. Looking out the window, I didn't see anything.

"What in the World…"

"FANG," Angel yelled from the top of the stairs with the rest of the flock right behind her "Max is in trouble."

Those were my most dreaded words. I sprang out of the chair, woke Iggy up and flew open the door, ready to fight. What I saw stopped me in my tracks. Iggy ran into me, and Nudge ran into him and you can guess the rest.

"What's going on? Hello, the blind guy would like some info."

"Iggy, there are two Max's fighting"

"Uh oh."

"Yeah Iggy, uh oh."

Well what do you think so far? Sorry if the chapters are a little short. Please review and tell me what you think. Pllllllllleeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaassssssssssseeeeeeeee. Pretty Please.


	4. Black

**A/N: Hey thank you, all who reviewed, I was sooooooo happy because I thought no one would review. Well here's another chapter, I hope you like it. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Max Ride.**

**Claimer: I do own the plot of this fantic and the new characters. (hint, hint)**

**Max POV**

I dived down at the fake Max and crashed into her at a really fast speed. (I don't exactly know what it was.) We tumbled and I ended up flailing and kicking as hard as I could. It may seem strange to you but somehow I think she knew I was coming, because an instant later we were both standing up just looking at each other.

"I thought Itex destroyed you."

"Nope Maxxie they didn't. I got away and Itex soon saw my true potential."

Did she just call me Maxxie? I'm so going to kill her for that.

"You see Max, you and I are very different people. The biggest difference is I now go by the name Black. Simple and yet appropriate. It describes my personality perfectly. Don't you think?"

A bunch of voices caught my attention. My flock was just outside the doorway staring at the two of us. I heard Iggy say "uh oh" and Fang nod his head. It was then that I also noticed my double had backed up closer to the woods. She had an evil smile on her face that made me shiver. Well now I know why Fang always shivers when I give him my evil smile. I truly do look evil.

_You don't look exactly like that Max, remember Black is actually evil. By the way your mother and I are on our way to visit. Don't worry about us though; we can handle ourselves in a fight with Erasers._

_Jeb what are you talking about, you and mom are on our way to visit. And what's this about erasers, I don't see any._

_Look again Max. See you in a bit._

_**JEB**_

I looked closer this time and what I saw made me gasp, about one hundred erasers were surrounding Black. (I just took my best guess about the number, but I think I was pretty close.)

"Max."

Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel had come over and were standing besides me. Angel's and Gazzy's eyes were wide open with fear. Nudge was trembling all over and clutching my wrist and effectively cutting off the circulation. Iggy and Fang were emotionless masks.

"Max those aren't Flyboys." Angel said, her voice quaking with fear.

"What do you mean Angel?"

_She means Itex is no longer making Flyboys, they are making regular Erasers again, but these are still and little different. Their faster, stronger and have an even bigger desire to kill._

"Max I mean those are real Erasers, just stronger and faster."

Jeb had already told me this but I still couldn't help from flinching.

"You see Max, you can't win, you are either going to come with us or die along with your pathetic flock." Black simply stated this in such a matter-of-fact way that my blood boiled even hotter.

"So what will your answer be? Save yourself or die? Yes or no?"

"I choose NO!"

With that I launched myself at Black and we became a tumbling mess of arms and legs. I managed to get in a good punch to her nose and blood started to gush out. Breaking her nose was a start. We were rolling over and over, trying desperately to gain the advantage. Black punched my left eye and it began to swell. After she pulled out her knife and held it threateningly over me.

"Any last words before the famous Maximum Ride dies?"

I looked past Black's head and saw a bunch of hawk type figures diving down fast towards the ground. I had no idea what they were but they started to attack the erasers. On closer inspection I saw these figures were kids just like us and had wings. More bird kids?

Suddenly Blacks weight was lifted off me and I heard Iggy and Gazzy yell "fore in the hole." I knew what that meant. A BIG boom was about to happen. I scrambled to my feet and started to run to the forest for cover. I was too slow though, because a boom louder than I ever imagined, went off and something hit me in the back of the head. I fell forward then everything went black.

**So review and tell me what ya think.**


	5. Fire in the Hole

**A/N: You all are great reviewers. I know some of you hate cliff hangers, but sorry I like writing like that. So again here's another chapter.**

**Fang POV**

"NO!"

Max lunged at Black and they soon became a tumbling ball. The erasers began to attack and our little yard became a battle field.

An eraser lunged at me and I did a round about kick right into his neck. A chocking sound came out of him and he fell with a thump to the ground. Well one down about a million more to go. Throwing myself into a fray of erasers who were attacking Angel, I knocked about three away and did a solid punch to one in the nose. That was gonna hurt for a while.

After I dispatched the three erasers I looked around to find utter chaos. There were so many erasers that as soon as the flock would take one down two more would take their place. We were either going to die or get really beat up.

A strong punch in my gut told me to snap out of my thinking. I went down into a crouch and swept the feet out from under the eraser that in turn fell on another one. Cool double points. Then as soon as I stood up a whooshing sound above me made me look up. The "battle ground" seemed frozen and I didn't believe my eyes.

Flying above us were birds, but these birds were big. They weren't birds though. They dived out of the sky and started attacking erasers along with us. They were bird kids and it looked like we may actually win this fight undead. Cool.

"Fire in the hole."

I saw Iggy standing by the cabin with a detonater in his hand. The new bird kids looked around confused. Max stood up and started running towards the woods along with the rest of our flock.

"Find cover fast, a bomb's about to explode." I yelled this more for a warning to the strange bird kids. (That's their temporary name until we have this all figured out.)

The strange bird kids all nodded their heads and took cover. I ran underneath the porch and covered my ears. I felt Iggy slide in with me and a huge explosion went off. The noise was defining and I felt dust hit me with tremendous force. Let's just say that it hurt, a lot.

The noise died down and Iggy and I slowly slipped out from underneath the porch. All around us trees were stripped of their leaves and bark, the ground was just dirt and there was major damage to the front of the cabin. Doing a quick 360 reveled the flock already out of their hiding places and the strange bird kids started coming out veeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyy slowly. I put on my emotionless mask and was about to confront the other kids when Gazzy broke the silence.

"Oh my gosh, that was AMAZING. Iggy we really outdid ourselves for small bombs. I think that now has the record."

"You call that amazing Gazzy? That bomb was beyond amazing. Try more of a fantastically awesome. Do you guys have more of those? If you do, you should carry them around more often. They tore through those erasers like paper. Speaking of erasers, those were real erasers not flyboys. Why do you think their real? Oh my Max is going to blow a gasket. Wait were is Max?"

I snapped my head up and looked around the clearing. Max was no where to be found. Nudge, even though she talked till your ears bled, always seemed to mention something important, and what was up with her all of a sudden having an interest in bombs? Oh wait, Iggy. A high pitched screech broke through the dead silence.

"Fang, Fang, Max is hurt. I saw Black through a stone at her before the bomb went off. She fell down the ridge."

"Angel, why didn't you tell us before? Gazzy, Iggy stay here and watch them," I pointed towards the other bird kids who were standing together in a group. "Nudge come with me and Angel go get the first aid kit."

"Fang!" Yelled a small girl. Two adults stood behind her. Max's family, great just what I need right now.

"Nudge lets go."

Nudge and I took off running and slid/fell down the steep mountain incline we called the ridge. The worst thing was, (at least right now it was the worst thing) there was a lake at the bottom, and since this was summer in the Rockies, it wouldn't be frozen.

Nudge slipped past me and we hit the small sandy lake shore and fell. I quickly jumped up and saw Nudge actually hadn't fallen. I was gonna hear that one for a while. Nudge shrieked and started running closer to the waters edge. I saw and ran too. Max lay extremely close to the water and there was a small amount of red sand around her head.

I kneeled down by Max and gently shook her. She stirred a little bit and Nudge squeezed her hand.

"Max, Max wake up."

"Fang." She said weekly. Max opened her eyes and looked straight at me. She smiled and tried to talk again.

"Don't talk just rest."

All my instincts told me to go find Black and tear her heart out. (And I was going to do just that as soon as possible.) A bunch of ruffling told me someone was coming; I looked up and saw Total. I had forgotten about him.

"Nudge go tell everyone we found Max and tell her mom she'll need to patch Max up a little."

Nudge looked at Max with a look of pure concern and hatred for you guessed it, Black.

"Now Nudge."

She got up and started running with Total at her heels. I stood up and picked up Max. She was light but it was going to be extremely hard to carry her up the ridge.

"Fang put me down and just help me walk up."

I glanced down into the hard, determined expression Max. She looked so cute when she's like that. Reluctantly I set her down and we started up the ridge. When we got back to the cabin, everyone was outside and waiting. Dr. Martinez, (aka Max's mom) took Max and they headed into the cabin. After a while they came back out and Max looked like her normal self.

"Okay I'm going to hunt down my stupid double and tear her throat out."

Max even acted like her normal self. Man, I loved that girl.

**A/N: So what do you'll think? Please review and I need suggestions for names for the other bird kids. I'll have another chapter up soon. : )**


	6. 6 to 21

**A/N: Hey thank you all who reviewed. And thank you everyone who added my story or me to their favorites or alerts, you make me smile. Well enough with my ranting, here's another chapter. Hint it's going to be kinda long.**

**Max POV**

I looked around the clearing into the eyes of my concerned flock. Fang had a huge grin on his face, (what was up with that) while Iggy was standing next to Nudge and holding her hand. Angel was talking to another bird kid who looked to be her age while Gazzy was standing next to Ella.

"Okay, first things first, my flock over here NOW!"

My flock moved behind me and stared at the strange bird kids. Fang came to my side and squeezed my shoulder. He gave me the I-can-handle-this-if-you're-not-up-to-it look, I smirked and gave him my not-on-your-life look. He backed off. Good Fang.

"Second, where would Jeb be?" After a year I still didn't call Jeb, dad, and I probably never would.

"Right here Max." Jeb stepped forward and Fang tensed next to me. He still didn't totally trust Jeb, none of us did.

"Next time give us more than ten minutes notice before you decide to visit. Third," I looked at all the other strange bird kids. There were exactly fifteen of them and they all looked like they ranged in ages like us. "Who are you and what do you want."

_Max I know these kids. They were other experiments at the same time you were. They are all from other institutes around the world. A few of them are the bird kids you rescued in New York. A few more are from the establishment you destroyed and the rest are from the Paris building. By the way I just learned that the new headquarters is in Paris and there is a new director. _

_How do you know all this Jeb?_

_I freed all of the kids you see in front of you except from New York and I have my contacts still in the system. Not all the scientists are evil, their just there working for me. The kids you see before you won't know me though, so DON'T say anything._

_And in the mean time your contacts are still killing innocent kids, and making our lives miserable._

Jeb didn't reply, not surprising.

One of the bird kids stepped forward and spoke.

"My name's Willow and I'm the leader of this flock. We come seeking your help. Itex is stronger than ever and the only way to defeat them is if we all join and unit and we believe that you Maximum Ride are the best person to lead us. It is also your destiny."

_Like I said about a month ago Max, you still have to save the world._

_Shush Jeb. _

The flock's eyes, including mine, all went wide. I had amazingly been able to keep my mouth closed and I thought that I had gotten past my shock enough to talk.

"Come in." I turned and walked towards the door of our cabin. Everyone followed. I went to stand in a corner of our amazingly large living room. I examined every person as they came in.

Four kids who looked almost identical sat down on one of our couches. Four more sat at the table while two sat in a chair, the rest settled on the floor. My flock mingled and with the other bird kids and my family all sat in the corner in the back of the room. Fang came and stood about three feet away while Willow and another boy stood about three feet away from her. Notice any similarities?

"Okay well I can pretty much tell that you're all bird kids like us. So, let's just go around and say our names and any extra gifts we have. Oh and if you have any siblings and how old you are. That okay with you, Willow?"

Willow looked startled that I was asking if it was okay with her. She shook her head yes.

"Okay then my flock will start. My name's Max and I can fly super fast and I'm 15."

Fang looked at me and stared with the obvious, we won't tell about your voice thing. I looked at the flock and saw that they all had on the same faces. I nodded at Nudge and she went next.

"My names Nudge and I can like feel vibrations from objects that tell me about them and I'm 10."

Amazingly she didn't ramble and I nodded and approving glance at her. Then Gazzy went.

"My name's Gazzy, it's short for Gasman and I can mimic voices and I help build bombs. Angels my sister and I'm 9."

Willow looked at me with a questioning glance.

"You'll soon find out why he's called that."

Willow grimaced already guessing why. Before she could say anything Angel spoke.

"I'm Angel; I can read peoples minds and some-what control them. I can breathe under water and talk to fish. My brothers Gazzy and I'm 7." Angel touched Iggy's arm telling him it was his turn.

"My name's Iggy, I can tell who people are by touch and I make bombs. I'm 15. Oh and I'm the best cook there ever was."

"Hey I remember you from New York, you were blind then." Said the girls whom I recognized as the ten year old we rescued from the institute in New York.

"I was but I got my sight back."

Yeah I know what your thinking, why didn't you tell us Iggy could see? The right time just never came up. So sorry but now you know. I looked at Fang and he sighed.

"My names Fang, I'm 15, and I can jump about twenty feet in the air and I blend into shadows."

Yeah Fang finally got some special abilities, and they are actually really cool. He can even out jump Total now and the blending into shadows thing creeps me out. All he has to do is go into a shadow and his skin and everything becomes pitch black, even his eyes. It's a dark gift and one I think fits him very well.

"Now you know us, Willow, how about you guys?"

"Okay well, my name's Willow, I'm 15 and I can create force fields/shields. Oh before you ask us, some of the scientists who put avian DNA into us also put dye into us. So our wings, eyes or hair may not be normal colors." Willow glanced at her flock and they all started talking one at a time.

I gave a shocked nod and looked at Willow. She was tall like all of us with long dirty blond hair, green eyes, tan skin and PURPLE wings.

"My name's Raven, I'm 15, I can talk to animals and my twin brother is Eel."

Raven was about at tall as me with tan skin. She had sandy blond, shoulder length hair and had black wings with a spots of red, blue, green,orange, and yellow feathers, and get this her eyes were black. Raven glanced at the boy to her right.

"My name's Eel, I'm 15, I can produce electricity and my twin sister is Raven."

Eel also had short sandy blond hair, tan skin, and black eyes. The splitting image of his sister except his wings were bright green. Eel glanced towards the boy about three feet away from Willow.

"My name's Blade, I'm 15, and I can produce balls of energy from my hands."

Blade looked a lot like Fang. He was tall with tan skin, had short black hair with red streaks and had black wings with one big red spot on each wing. He even had blood red eyes. Creepy. So reminded me of Fang. Blade looked at a girl to my right.

"My name's Cammie, I'm 15, and I can blend into any surrounding, like camouflage. I'm also a really good singer."

Cammie was a tall girl with very dark tan skin. She had long black hair with green tips and get this had wings that looked like camouflage, with swirls of green, brown and tan. Cool. She even had bright green eyes.

"I'm Sprinkle and I'm 13. I have three siblings and we're quadruplets. I can control water and everyone says I talk too much."

Nudge's face brightened and she stood up and sat by Sprinkle, they were talking in hushed tones instantly. The flock and I all groaned, (except Nudge) and we got questioning glances from every one else. I decided Nudge couldn't hide here love for talking so I explained.

"Nudge can talk till your ears bleed and keep on going."

This got groans from the other bird kids and Willow spoke up.

"Sprinkle doesn't know when to stop talking either."

I looked at Sprinkle and smiled, she was like an older version of Nudge, Oh great. She had blue eyes and short brown hair. She was about the same height as Nudge and had olive/tan skin, and her wings were blue.

One of the boys who sat by Sprinkle spoke up. "My name's Coal and I can create fire in my hands and control it. I'm 13 and I'm part of the quadruplets."

Coal looked exactly like Sprinkle except he had red eyes and maroon wings with thin vertical orange stripes. Another boy next to him spoke.

"My name's Red and I'm 13. I'm part of the quadruplets and I can control rocks."

Red looked exactly like his brother and sister as well. His eyes though were brown and he had Blood red wings.

The last of the four spoke up. "My name's Star and I'm 13, I'm also the last of the quadruplets and I can control air. The interesting thing about us four is that our special abilities are the elements. Water, fire, earth and air."

Star again looked like her brothers and sister with light blue eyes and teal wings. I thought it was pretty cool that the four controlled the elements and by looking at them, so did my flock.

A girl stood up with a boy right by her side, they looked almost identical so I guessed they were twins. The boy spoke up first.

"My name's Ice my twin sister here is Charm. We're 12 and I can produce ice." Charm spoke up before Ice could continue.

"I can make mirages of almost anything I've seen before. There is a limit as to how big and how much I can do but it's cool."

Ice and Charm were a little shorter than I was and they had tan skin. They both had red hair but Charms hair had sparkles in it. The biggest difference between them was their wing and eye colors. Ice had navy blue eyes and brown wings, while Charm had yellow eyes and gold wings.

"My name's Sky and I'm 11. I know where and who certain people are within a distance of one hundred feet. I was also the girl whom you rescued from New York and I thank you for that."

Sky was about Gazzy's height and had olive skin. She had long, (mid-back long) blond hair that looked almost gold and had lime green eyes. Her wings were orange. Weird.

"My names Trent, I'm 10 and can walk through solid objects."

Trent was the same height as Nudge and had dark skin. He had shoulder length black hair with numerous streakes of a shimmery silver hair. His eyes were dark brown and he had shimmery silver wings.

"My name's Uno, I'm 9 and I can make up to five replicas of myself."

Uno was tall and had olive/white skin. His hair was short and black with long grey bangs. His eyes were brown and he had dark grey wings.

"My name's Tint and I'm 7. I can turn invisible and I really like your dog Total."

Tint was the same height as Angel with tan skin. She had curly red hair and hazel eyes, her wings were yellow with black spots. She was sitting on the ground talking to Angel and looking at Celest and Total. Angel giggled and I knew they were going to be friends.

I looked at Willow and nodded. I was about to say something when Nudge and Sprinkle interrupted me.

"Max, Willow, we're hungry."

I looked at Willow and we both burst out laughing. "So you guys have big appetites too?" I asked.

"Yep."

"Hey Iggy would you mind whipping up lunch for twenty one very hungry kids?"

"Sure but we'll have to go to the store."

And just like that our two flocks merged into one with me, Max, as the leader. The other flock settled into our house, (Like I said this was a huge cabin) and for once in a long time everything was fine. Amazing.

**Eliza Rogan's POV**

**New headquarters**

"Mam the two flocks have met and are under the leadership of Maximum Ride."

"Good. Now we can start faze one. Mr. Dem, please shut down Fangs blog."

"Already done."

"Even better, we'll wait one month and observe. Then send in our erasers to capture every single one of those bird kids. And bring me Black I have a special assignment for her."

All according to plan. Maybe this will work better than I hoped.

**So what do you think about the new characters and Fangs new abilities? Oh and what do you think about Iggy getting his sight back? Please Review. :)**


	7. Close Calls, and a New Ability

**A/N: Here's another chapter. Hope you like it.**

**Max POV**

"Max, can Sprinkle, Star, Nudge, Angel, Tint and I go down to the lake, it's really warm."

"If you stay together and be careful, yes you may."

"Thank you Max."

I watched as Sky and the other five girls ran out of the cabin in their bathing suites. It had been three months since Willow and her flock and joined us. Now we were one big flock with me as the leader. We all got to know each other and we're like a big family. I know pretty much everything about every person here and I love them all the same. Well let me back up a little bit.

After we ate supper the night we met Willow and her flock we got to know each other even more. I even told them about my voice. (I didn't tell them who it was though. Only Fang and I know that little detail.) The flock moved in and we became one. Willow didn't have any problem handing over the leadership reigns to me and her flock quickly accepted me and my flock. We spent about one week together and we knew we would never separate. It's cool.

Our cabin used to be an old hotel; we fixed it up a while ago. It has three stories with two large bedrooms on the bottom floor, six small bedrooms and one medium sized bedroom on the second floor and seven small/medium sized bedrooms on the top. The kitchen is big enough and we also have an attic that is our chill room. There are three living rooms, (one on each floor) and there is one small bathroom per bedroom. There's even a large basement with a washer and dryer in it. We paired up Sprinkle, Nudge and Star, who got one of the large rooms on the first floor, while Gazzy, Uno, and Trent all share the other large room. Angel and Tint share the medium sized room on the second floor while Coal, Red, Sky, Charm, Ice and Cammie all got their own rooms on the second floor. Fang, Iggy, Blade, Willow, Raven, Eel and I all got our own small rooms on the third floor. So it all works out.

You probably still have a lot of questions like where do you guys get all the food? Or, do you guys fight? Or even, what about Fang and I? Well, every week we go to a Wal-Mart and buy a ton of food with my ATM card that mysteriously never runs out of money. No, we haven't fought amongst ourselves and I just recently kissed Fang. I even saw Iggy and Nudge making breakfast very early and saw them holding hands. What's up with that? But to let all who are reading this in on a little secret, Blade and Cammie like each other, and Eel and Willow like each other. Ahhhhhhhhh.

"Hey Max, want to go up to the attic and watch T.V.?"

I looked up from the book I was reading to find Willow, Raven, and Cammie standing over me. I was in our third story living room relaxing and getting very warm. During the summer, especially in the middle of July it can get warm up in the Rockies. That was our cabins one down fall, no air conditioning.

"Sure. But why not down stairs it will be cooler. Oh and we have to attempt to make dinner tonight."

"Coal, Red, Trent and Gazzy are watching a football game and trying to reenact the plays. And Iggy's gonna have to help us make dinner or we'll burn everything like last time and have to go out to eat."

"Oh, okay well, lets go upstairs."

We all walked up to the attic and pulled out the four big bean bag chairs, and turned the channel on to What Not to Wear. The four of us had become very good friends and did a lot together. They also helped me manage everybody. Today though was a very laid back day because no one was here, except for the boys down stairs. Sprinkle, Angel, Nudge, Sky, Tint, and Star had gone to swim, while Fang, Blade, Iggy, Eel, Ice, Uno, and Charm all had gone to Wal-Mart. So only us four girls and the four boys were here.

"Hey Max, Coal, Trent, Gazzy and I are going to go play in the woods by the beach."

"Okay but keep an eye on each other and watch out for the girls as well."

Make that us four girls were the only ones still home. What Not to Wear ended about a half hour later and I shut the T.V. off.

"Guys want to go check up on the boys and see if they need help at the store?"

"Sure why not, there's nothing else left to do here anyways."

I smiled at Cammie, stood up and opened the window, just as my voice popped in.

_Max! Your in danger, your flock is in danger. ERASERS!_

Most of the time I never take Jeb seriously but his was not one of those times.

"Max are you okay, you paled all of a sudden."

"Oh my gosh, there are a bunch of erasers and everyone's in danger."

"How do you know?" Asked Raven, fear creeping into her voice.

"The Voice told me."

The door to the attic burst open and a bunch of erasers swarmed in. I saw bloodlust in their eyes and knew this was going to hurt.

"We can do this the easy way or the hard way. I prefer the hard way." The eraser closets to us, spoke, and then laughed, but stopped a second later. "Hey where did that one chick go?"

I smiled knowing Cammie had blended into the attic walls. The erasers were turning around frantically looking. I knew we couldn't surpass this opportunity.

"Attack the erasers."

I flung myself at the lead eraser and did a good solid punch to the chest. His breath left him in a whoosh, and he stumbled backwards. I turned around and did a round about kick that landed in his ribs, I felt and heard ribs cracking. To my surprise he punched me in the cheek and I felt blood. I kicked him one more time in the throat and he fell limp at my feet. I looked around to see an eraser being beaten up by seemingly nothing and smiled. Cammie appeared and smacked the eraser in the head. Willow was blocking punch after punch with her shields and then sent one flying that hit an eraser. Raven was battling with another eraser that had a squirrel biting it.

I turned and froze. Four erasers had guns and they were pointed at us. Raven, Willow, and Cammie also froze.

"Now since you chose to do this the hard way…"

The erasers in front of us raised their guns and brought the butts of them down on our heads. I fell to the ground dizzy and seeing spots. The erasers came over and repeatedly kicked us. As I felt myself slipping into unconsciousness I heard the front door open loudly and someone yelled. I smiled as I recognized Fangs voice. I heard the erasers jump out the window and unfold their unnatural wings before I passed out.

**Fangs POV**

As I opened the door and yelled, I saw there was no one around.

"They all probably went down to the lake. It's really hot." Eel said while pulling his shirt collar away from his neck.

I nodded and looked at Blade. He had the same expression that I knew I had on my face right now.

"Let's just check and be sure."

Blade nodded and we all split up. Blade and I had actually become very close friends and we thought a lot of the same things. I walked up to the attic and left Blade and Iggy to look on the third floor. I stopped about half way up the stairs and looked at the wall. It had deep claw marks running along the rail. Probably from one of Ravens animal friends. I walked to the top and gasped. I put my emotionless mask on and tried to remain calm. The door was in pieces and Max, Raven, Willow, and Cammie all lay on the floor, motionless. There was blood everywhere and those deep claw marks on the open window frame.

"Guys up here, hurry."

I rushed over to Max and she stirred a little. The other guys came over and they checked on the other three. The girls were alive. Iggy ran his hands around them and said they would probably just be out for a little while. They had scratches all over their bodies and lumps on their heads.

A slamming door and a bunch of running footsteps told me that everyone else was home. Sky ran in the doorway with everyone else close behind. They stood still, shock clear on their faces. Sky spoke up with fear in her voice.

"I felt a bunch of erasers around the cabin and we all rushed back to warn you guys."

"Okay, I want everyone to go to their rooms except Blade, Eel, and Iggy. Don't come out either. If you need anything come get us. Start packing as much stuff as you can into your backpacks, we're getting out of here."

The kids did what they were told. I looked at Blade. It was these times that everyone trusted me to make the calls. With the four girls out cold they would have to wait until they woke up to fly away.

"Blade get Cammie, Eel get your sister and Iggy get Willow. I've got Max. We'll take them to the bottom living room."

With that I picked up Max and felt my heart ache. She was breathing really fast and sweat poured down her face. Her hands were clenched into fists and a tear rolled down her cheek. She was having another nightmare, after three months of not having one.

We walked to the living room and set the girls on the couches. Iggy ran to get the first aid kits; yes we have more than one, and treated the scratches in silence. After he was done he said something extremely shocking.

"The next time I see an eraser, I'm going to pummel him into next week."

The four of us being the oldest guys, had pretty much taken on the role of protectors. The four of them had even talked about it one night after Cammie had gotten sick. Blade was as tight as a ball that night and never left her side. After that the four boys had decided that was what their role in the flock would be as seeing Max, Willow, Raven and Cammie were the leaders and had no one to look after them.

Raven stirred and Iggy sat by her side. Most would have said that Iggy liked Raven but no, Iggy was good friends with her and nothing more, besides Iggy liked Nudge.

Later that night after supper Willow and Cammie had woken up. They were in their rooms resting. Max still lay on the sofa as tight as a ball. She jerked her head around and mumbled something. I went over and shook her softly. She opened her eyes and I saw relief in them. She sat up and kissed me. Why, you ask? I have no idea why, but her kiss tasted of sorrow and pain. The pain hurt, and the sorrow tore my heart. This all felt like mine but how? She backed off.

"I'm sorry Fang."

"For what?"

"For giving you that pain.

I looked at Max very confused.

"Fang I have a new ability and I don't like it."

**Muahahaha. I know some people don't like cliff hangers but you're going to have to live with them. I'll explain more about Max's new ability in the next chapter. Oh and it may be a few days before I can post another chapter. So review please. Oh and do you think I should maybe change some things so that Nudge and Iggy and I becomes Iggy and Raven?**


	8. Here we go Again

**A/N: Oh my gosh, thank you all who reviewed. Just a heads up I think I'm going to have Iggy like raven instead of Nudge. Oh and one of you guys who reviewed guessed what Max's new ability will be. I'm not telling anything, but I hope you like it. Anyway here's another chapter.**

**Fang POV**

"_Fang I have a new ability and I don't like it."_

First, Max just kissing me for no reason, although I did like it, is not like her. Second, the look on her face made me want to punch a thousand eraser butts. Third, what she just said shocked me, and that's hard to do people.

"What do you mean? I mean what can you do that's so horrible?"

"I transmit what I'm feeling to anyone when I have any kind of physical contact. I also feel what the person I'm touching feels like."

"Wait so you mean when I kissed you, the reason I felt pain and sorrow was because that's what _you_ were feeling?"

"Yes, just like I could feel your confusion and why I can feel your fear now." 

I looked down to see I was holding her hand. I pulled my hand away and heard all the other flock members run up. I heard them talking but I couldn't make out words. I just stared at Max. My Max, my savior in disguise. I could tell Max felt the same way as I felt right now just by the look in her face.

_Fang what's wrong with Max. She somehow was able to find a way to block my thoughts. I can't pick up anything from her._

_Angel, you'll have to have Max explain, I won't tell you._

_Please Fang. I need to know._

_No Angel._

I felt Angels mind leave mine. I felt really bad but Max should be the one to tell everybody, not me. All of this was too confusing. Max had her head in her hands and was crying softly. Willow came over and sat next to Max on the couch. Before anyone could stop her, Willow gave Max a hug but pulled away instantly. She had shock and disbelief written all over her face. A tear streamed down her cheek and Willow opened her mouth to speak.

"I'm sooooooo sorry Max. That is terrible you don't deserve to have to worry like that."

"Hello, what's so terrible? Blade and the rest of the flock would like to know."

Max looked up. Her tears had mixed with blood on her face, she looked like crap.

"I have a new ability. I can feel other people's emotions and they can feel mine when I have any kind of physical contact with another person. I can't control it and when I touch someone my feelings can easily be amplified to a point to where I could kill you, or hurt you. So from now on no touching me and I won't touch you."

The flock all nodded their heads. This was going to be hard on her and the flock. When something bad happened just one touch from Max reassured us and she would always hug us and tell us it was okay. We would give each other hugs a lot and I couldn't kiss her anymore. Man this sucks. I can't kiss Max. I can't hold her, I can't kiss her, I can't tell her It's alright, and I can't kiss her. Did I mention I can't kiss her? I pulled myself together enough to speak.

"Max we need to leave. The erasers know that this was were we permanently lived and will come back. We need to go."

Max nodded her head. I looked at her with a deep rooted longing; all I wanted to do was take the pain away. To shield her from all the bad things she's had to and will have to deal with. I reallllllllllyyyyyyyy wanted to hug her and make everything better.

"Okay I'll go pack. Fang do you have the lab top or do I?"

"You do."

Yes I finally relinquished my lab top. Someone had shut my blog down, jerks. Sorry to those who liked it. The strange thing was, the very last message I got was sent by the same people who shut my blog down. I still remember the message it was really weird. _"Two became one, now one roams. Under one authority one roams the sea, land and most importantly the sky. But no more. For soon the one will be smaller and will roam no more. The one will be gone."_

I was never able to figure the message out; neither was any other of the flock members, including Nudge. So no more blog, again sorry but blame the people who shut it down, not me.

Max came down the stairs with a backpack slung on her back. She looked composed and ready to take down a bunch of erasers. She was back.

"Let's go. We have a world to save… together."

After that I admit, everyone brightened up, even me. I had a smile on my face for all of three seconds. Everyone walked outside turned around. Stupid Itex ruined everything. We had to leave our home. Again I say, stupid Itex.

"When all this is over, we're going to come back. Trust me."

I looked at Max and nodded. I was going to hold her to that promise. With that one by one, the flock took off. Angel with Celest and Tint with Total. Uno, Trent, Nudge, Gazzy and Sky all took off at the same time, their wings painting color into the sky. (You can all say aaaaawwwww now.) Sprinkle, Coal, Red, Charm, and Ice all went next; runnings in sequence with each other, then the rest of us were off the ground and in the air."

I closed my eyes and let the air attempt to whip my short hair around while my long bangs effectively hid my face. I flew up silently next to Max. She was enjoying this as much as I was. A cool western draft sent goose bumps up my arms. We were flying towards a storm, but it was a long ways away yet. The sun was behind us making Tint's and Charm's wings shimmer and giving Max's hair a halo effect.

"What are you smiling at?"

Max's question brought me back. She had a huge grin on her face and looked so much like an angel to me. No I didn't mean our 7 year old Angel either.

"Max which way are we going to head?"

"You ignored my question Fang, but we'll head east. Jeb just told me to go east."

"How far east?"

"We'll angle up towards New York and head to Paris from there. We're going to end this once and for all."

Those were the last words I heard. I flew up above Max and stayed there thinking. We were heading back to New York. Some of our most unpleasant memories had taken place there but it was easy to fit in there. But we have 21 people in our flock now. Would we still fit in? Either way you look at it we were in for a ride. Here we go again.

**Okay so what did you think? There will be more action in the next chapter I promise. In my chapter "6 to 21" I got Nudges age wrong, she's 12 not 10. Sorry. So yeah review and I will have the next chapter up really soon. Oh and what do you guys think about Fang finding his parents?**


	9. Complications

**A/N: My story is going to have some plot twists soon, so don't kill me if you don't like the way my story's going. It will eventually get back on track. So here's another chapter. **

**Max POV**

"…_We're going to end this once and for all."_

Fang nodded and flew up above me. We were heading to New York. I wonder how Sky's going to take it. The last time we were in New York we got into a lot of trouble. Oh well, the flock will have to deal. I stopped, and hovered where I was so I could talk to my flock. They all stopped too.

"Hey listen up, we're going to angle upwards and head to New York. From there we'll catch a plane to Paris and finish Itex off for good. We'll fly as far as we can today."

Everyone nodded and we were flying again. The wind in my face was whipping my hair around, and sending shivers down my back. Up here it just seemed that all our problems on the ground didn't matter. They were lost when we took off, but that was not to be. Our problems still faced us ands we were coming straight at them. We no longer could live in one spot and forget about all our problems. One thought kept bugging me though, how were we going to feed twenty one very hungry kids and still remain inconspicuous?

After a day and a half of flying we crossed the boarder into Kansas. I saw a group of storm clouds up ahead of us. They looked to be heading east as well, but we were gaining on them. After three food and rest stops, the wind started to pick up. I looked at my watch, it was 4 p.m. It was really dark, we had finally gained on the storm. The wind kept buffeting my wings so I decided that it was hardly worth trying to fly. We would land and let the storm get some distance on us.

"Okay guys, look for a place to camp for the rest of the day."

Five minutes later the flock was on the ground in a nice sheltered clearing. We were just over the boarder into Kansas and were having a good time just goofing off.

"Hey Max, come see what Uno found."

I got up from my nice relaxing spot and followed Nudge.

"We already found the rest of the flock and everyone's already there. You're going to love it. Uno found it by accident and Total went to find everybody."

"Okay Nudge I get it, what ever you guys found is cool."

Nudge led me through some bushes and we ended up in a clearing. What I said about what they had found was 'cool' was a total understatement. In front of me was a river, with a small water fall that the kids were using as a water slide. Tree branches hung over the water and Blade swung on one and fell with a splash into the water. There was a small rocky shore that ended with the sandy bottom of the river and crystal clear water.

"Oh my gosh, this place is amazing."

"Yeah I know, and the best part is, we weren't able to find any way for other people to get here. So this is all ours for the time being."

Fang, Blade, Cammie and I all went back and got our stuff. We were going to make our camp by the river. After all that was done, I got out my bathing suite and plunged into the water. The river felt good, it was the perfect depth. It got deeper as you went to the other side, but that was where the water fall was.

Something grabbed my ankle and I screeched. Fang came up and laughed hysterically. I splashed water on him and we got into a wrestling match. I second later I realized Fang had touched my skin and I didn't feel any of my emotions leaving and I couldn't feel his.

_Max you didn't have to worry, you got control of this ability after a few hours, but you didn't have any one touching you. So I'm saying now you can go back to being regular Max. _

"Max."

Fang looked in my eyes and I almost started to cry.

"Fang you touched me and nothing bad happened. Jeb just told me I had control of this ability."

Fang's face lit up and he kissed me. To me it felt like heaven. When we pulled apart for air, I laughed and splashed Fang. Angel popped up next to me and she screeched.

"Oh my gosh Max. That's awesome. I already told everyone else."

"Angel some times you amaze me."

The rest of the day, we all had a great time. When it was over, everyone was exhausted. We all sat around a campfire that Coal had made and were roasting fish, that Raven had convinced to come to shore, and anything else food wise we had. After we were done eating, most of the flock fell asleep, except for me, and Fang who had gone to collect fire wood. When he came back, I hugged him and he fell asleep. The rest of the night was really uneventful.

Iggy woke me up the next morning and we had a short, quick breakfast. I had, had another nightmare but it wasn't as bad because no one had woke me up. I had dreamt that Ella had died and Itex was going after my family, but it was only a dream.

Around 4 p.m. the wind picked up again. We had reached the storm about a half hour ago but it wasn't bad. Now the wind was gusting and tossing my wings, and if you think that was bad, it started to rain.

"Everyone get on the ground, NOW."

One by one we landed and ran for cover. We were on the edge of some woods when it started to thunder, rain even harder, hail a little bit and streakes of lightning lit the sky . We were all soaked to the bone and shivering, we had to find shelter and quick. When I looked up at the sky it was a greenish color, how weird.

"Max, we really need to find shelter. The wind this storm's creating is like…"

I looked into the scared eyes of Star. Slowly I turned around to look at what had Star so worked up, and guess what? I froze too. In front of us, maybe a half mile away was a funnel cloud. The rest of the flock saw what we were looking at.

"Ah Max, what…" Trent started to speak but I cut him off.

"RUN."

It would do no good to fly; we would be made into mince meat. So we belted away as fast as we could. I don't know about you guys, but when I see a funnel cloud the next thing that comes to my mind is Tornado. I looked ahead to see a road with a storm drain, we could hide in the drain.

"Head for the road." I yelled, while pointing frantically.

There was a really loud freight train sound and I looked back to see the tornado had touched ground and was tearing at us with amazing speed.

Because we were running for our lives, I didn't see the tree branch that was being whipped towards us. It hit Tint in the head and she fell down in a heap, and it hit me in the ribs. A sharp pain ripped through me and I had to force myself from falling. Eel came back, picked up Tint and we kept running.

When made it to the drain, Eel handed Tint to Blade, and went in first. I shuffled in everyone else. Fang stopped by me and motioned me to go in. I shook my head and shoved him in. I turned around to see the tornado only a few seconds away.

_Max get in that stupid storm drain. Quit staring at the tornado._

I got in the drain. There was barely enough room for everyone, so we huddled together. Fangs eyes met mine. He started to say something. I didn't catch it all but I caught enough.

"...Maximum Ride I love you."

My heart melted and I muttered the same thing to him.

"I love you too Fang."

Then the tornado hit. The sound was defining and the wind was fierce. My ears popped and I started to slide backwards. I dug my hands and feet into the rivets on the drain and saw Eel doing the same thing.

Then disaster.

A bunch of water filled with, small branches, sand and rocks came flooding through the drain. Eel lost his grip and about half of the flock tumbled out of the drain. I screamed. A rock hit my hand and I lost my grip. I fell out with the rest of the flock right behind. I saw Fang being thrown on the ground and going limp. I was thrown up against a tree and blacked out. My last thought was how all this could happen in only a few seconds.

I woke up to a bunch of yelling. My head throbbed and when I tried to stand, my knees gave way. I felt nauseous and very dizzy. A hand grabbed my shoulder and I whipped around. Bad idea, because I fell on my butt doing so. I looked up to see a woman, maybe in her forties with kind eyes. Panic gripped my heart. I looked around, slowly this time, to see a bunch of people around the storm drain we had hid in.

_Jeb, help._

_It's okay Max. These people mean you no harm. They want to help and you can trust them with your secrets. They live in a small town nearby, that's where they have been taking the flock._

"Miss, it's okay. We're not here to hurt you or your friends, we just want to help. We're going to take you into town. Okay?"

No it was not 'okay' but what other choice did I have. Jeb said we could trust these people but I wasn't Jeb. I didn't trust them. But for the good of my flock I nodded and let the lady help me up. Once we were better, we were going to get right back to our mission.

The lady led me to a Chevy pick-up with a bunch of blankets, which were very soft, in the back. The lady told me to lay down on them and I did. My side hurt still from the tree branch, but not as much as my head did. The lady sat down beside me and nodded to someone in the truck. The truck started up and we began moving backwards. The lady spoke again.

"Just rest for a while, we'll be in town in about ten minutes."

I nodded slightly and closed my eyes. The rythmatic bumping of the truck lulled me into a fitful sleep.

**So what did you think? I'll be updating my story really soon, so review, review, review. I really want to know what everyone thinks.**


	10. Escape

**Oh my gosh, I keep getting more and more reviews, thanks so much. I kinda have writers block about what I'm going to do after this chapter, so yeah. Here's another chapter and keep reviewing. **

**Fang POV**

I woke up in a small room that looked like it had been dunked in a bucket of pink paint, literally. Everything was pink. The walls, carpets, drapes, blankets and even the desk were all different shades of pink. Yuck, gross, ick and so not me. Then I remembered what had happened at the drain. Memories flooded back to me so fast that is hurt.

Max loosing her grip on the drain and falling, Max screaming in my ear, the look of total defeat on her face before I passed out and her saying she loved me. She said she loved me. I never meant to say that I loved her it just came out. Then my shock at her saying it back. Did she really love me? A loud whimper interrupted my thoughts, my Max induced thoughts. I looked to the other side of the room to see, Tint, lying in another bed that looked like the one I was in. I tried to get up, but once my feet hit the floor, I in took a sharp breath and tried again. This time I was ready for the pain that would shoot up my leg and hip.

Wait, I just missed something. Why am I in a room filled with pink when I clearly (okay maybe not all to clear) remember passing out on a very sharp and hard rock. Why is Tint beside me and where is everyone else? Where am I?

The door to the room opened and in stepped two people who looked like doctors. One was a tall woman with red hair, a creepy gleam in her eyes, and a face that sent warning signs off galore in my head. The other person was a short guy, bald (his head was rrrreeeeaaaallllyyyy shiny) with a grey mustache, and even though he was short he had some good muscles, they were almost popping out of his jacket. The guy picked up Tint, none to gently and the lady turned to me.

"I'm doctor Rogan; this is my associate here, Doctor Gesh. We're here to take you to a better place to get take care of your injuries. No one has been able to look at you or the rest of your flock so I can imagine you have a lot of questions."

Okay I don't know about you guys, but she just said the magic alarm word, 'flock,' not good.

"I don't know who you are lady" I had my emotionless mask on and was putting every ounce of venom I could into these words, "but before we go any where with you, you are to answer some of my questions."

"You guys always have to do things the hard way, don't you? Well maybe this will answer some of your questions."

"Doctor" Rogan side stepped and pushed the guy with Tint out of the room. Behind what's her face, stepped Black.

"Hi Fang miss me. I sure missed you. I mean Max always gets the hot guys and I'm stuck with dirty erasers, except Ari, he's okay. Oh wait, he's dead, you should be glad."

I look at Miss. Rogan with a renewed sense of fury. She just smiled and nodded.

"Now you see the trouble your in. Come with us and I promise not to hurt one member of your flock."

"Lady you must be mental if you think I'm going to come with you back to that stupid school."

"Oh, I wasn't talking about the school in California; I was talking about Itex head quarters in Paris."

Black lunged at me, I put my hand out and punched her right in the gut, and it felt good. I know you all at home are thinking, how can he do that to someone who looks exactly like Max? Easy, Black is a heartless killer while Max is the girl I love. To me Black and Max look nothing alike.

"Black restrain yourself."

Black pulled away from me. There was just a hint of pain in her eyes, good. I turned to look at what's her face; sorry I just don't like her so I don't remember her name. She smiled.

"Fang if you don't come with us my associate will just have to kill your little friend that was sleeping in here. Now you don't want that do you?"

"Fine."

"Good. Black, would you please."

I turned around just in time to see black sticking a needle in my arm. Suddenly the room span and I blacked out, again.

**Max POV**

When I woke up, I was in a truck of some sort and couldn't move. My last memory was of that stupid Doctor Rogan, and Black sticking that stupid needle in my stomach. I hoped the bloody nose and the cracked ribs hurt her. A bunch of moaning caught my attention. My whole flock was strapped down to the bed of this truck, much like I was. They were all awake and staring at me, worry in their eyes. Fang looked like a ghost and a sigh left him when I looked at him.

"Max your okay. We were so worried. That Doctor Rogan got us all it looks like and she's taking us to Paris. It would be so cool if we weren't going to be used and killed. But anyway we all woke up a while ago and you just wouldn't. Are you okay Max?"

You may have guessed who was talking but guess again, it was Sprinkle. Her and Nudge could make you go crazy. 

"Yes I'm fine, but the next time I see Black, I'm going to make mince meat out of her and then eat it. I'm so sick of her. And how do you know all that stuff?"

"Well they told us before they captured us, and Angel did a little mind wandering with the drivers and erasers in the front of this truck. Did you know we're in the back of a semi that has been shut off from the rest of the semi?"

"No Sprinkle I didn't know that. Any body have any ideas how to get out of here?"

"No."

"Okay Blade or Eel could you zap your restraints?"

Tried they just shocked us back. We all tried to wiggle out of the restraints as well. They also shock you when you do that, and let me tell you it ain't no little shock either."

"Okay Trent can you pull yourself through the restraints?"

"Nope, tried already, they shocked me."

"Willow your shields."

"Tried, got shocked. Just face it Max, we can't get out."

I lay on the floor of the semi, feeling the constant bumping of a road that needs to be repaved. An idea was forming inside my head but it would hurt. Most likely it would hurt worse if I was able to it than if I failed. I was going to try to overload the restraints with my emotions. I could focus all my anger and stuff into my hands and ankles and hopefully over load the restraints. It was going to hurt to say the least. If it killed me I wouldn't be surprised, but we had to get out of here.

"Okay guys I'm going to try something."

"Max don't you could be killed."

That got the flocks attention. Great job Angel.

"Angel how many times do I have to tell you to stay out of the flocks minds? You know better."

"Sorry Max I just don't want you to get hurt."

"Max what are you planning on…"

Before Fang could finish his sentence, I started to focus my energy. The restraints started to shock me big time, no surprise there, but as time went on the pain got worse and worse. Still I kept at it. I could hear the flock telling me to stop, but I ignored them. When it seemed like I would pass out from the pain, there was a sputter and the restraints stopped shocking my.

I lay on the floor gasping, seeing spots swirl around my head. It still felt like I would pass out when I heard Fang. He actually had fear in his voice that was very evident.

"Max, oh my gosh, are you okay? Would you talk to me, I don't want you passing out."

"Why? Cause you were going to."

A frown took over his face and he let out a huge sigh, so did everyone else. It was then I realized how worried he had been. Good, that meant that Fang was actually serious when he said he loved me.

"Max can you get out?"

"Let me check here Iggy"

I pulled on the strap on my right wrist. That was all it was too was a strap, with some wiring. I easily got loose and did the same with the rest. Soon my whole flock was free and we were all hugging each other.

"Okay guys, how do we get out of here?"

"The door."

I looked at Gazzy. He was smiling and had something in his hand.

"Gazzy there is no door. We're in a little containment cell inside a semi. There is no door."

"Not yet there isn't, but there soon will be."

"Awesome Gazzy you were able to sneak one of our bombs past Max, cool. How did you, uh oh."

I gave Iggy a hard venomous glair. He actually shrank back a little. That was not like him. His eyes were wide and his lower lip trembled a little. Nudge and Raven, who were standing next to him also, shrank back. Now I was confused and a little scared.

"What?"

"M M Max. I Is that really you? Angel see if that's really Max and not Black."

Angel who was now standing by Iggy was looking at me with pure horror.

"WHAT is going on here? Of course I'm Max who else would I be?"

"Black."

The one word answer stunned me. My flock honestly thought I was Black.

"She's not Black, she's Max, but she sure looked like Black."

A shiver ran down Angel's body.

"What, I ask again."

This time I directed the question at Iggy.

"Max when you glared at me, you no longer looked like Max. You looked like a very angry Black. There was such a big change that I really thought you were Black."

"Oh. I'm sorry Iggy. Won't happen again. Now Gazzy, even though you're going to hear it the next time we stop, make a door would you."

"Sure."

We all ran to the opposite wall and pressed ourselves as flat as possible. Once we accomplished that, Gazzy threw his mini bomb at the wall and ran. I grabbed him and covered him up as best as I could just a millisecond before the bomb went off. It wasn't loud but it sent debris everywhere and it was sure to be noticed.

We scrambled to the new door and looked down. Gazzy couldn't have picked a better spot to jump. We were on a bridge and very close to the side. A river ran at the bottom and thick trees blanketed the river banks.

"U and A, now."

Quickly everyone unfolded their wings and jumped. I was the last to go. The minute I jumped a loud pop spilt the air and something whizzed past my shoulder. Some one just tried to shoot me. Suddenly a bunch of guns were being fired. Most of my flock was already out of range but by total misfortune, Cammie who was flying next to me got hit.

Cammie's wings folded and she started to fall.

"Cammie!" I yelled. I know it sounds so stupid but that's what I said.

Blade and Fang turned around and started to head back. I flew down and caught Cammie, a few seconds later Blade arrived with Fang and they both took her. With bullets still whizzing past our heads we flew out of there as fast as we could. About a half hour later I told the flock to land. We found a nice dry clearing far away from anyone or anything. Blade and Fang laid Cammie down and Iggy went to take a look. Another thing he's good at is injuries, although it didn't take a genius to see she had been shot straight through her wing. Why she passed out was still a mystery.

_Max she is hurt a lot worse than you think. Even Iggy won't find much wrong. The bullet she was hit with went through her wing and cut along her side. If you don't do something fast, she'll bleed to death._

That got my attention.

_Any ideas Jeb?_

_Yes, there's a large town about five minutes north of you. Find a small cabin on the south side that says Duke's Painters. The guy who owns it works for me and is a doctor. He knows about you guys and will help. Just in case though say that Jeb told you to come._

"Guys we got to go. Iggy, Cammie got shot on her side, patch that up quick. Then Fang and Blade take Cammie and follow us."

They nodded but didn't really understand. If we didn't get Cammie help soon she would die. I couldn't live with myself then.

**Hey me again. Review please and tell me what you think. I kinda need some suggestions as to what to do next I'm stuck. So again, review and I'll try to get a new chapter up before the weekend.**


	11. I may never see her again

**Hey thank you all who reviewed. I still don't exactly know where I'm going with the next few chapters, so if you have any suggestions please tell me. Here's another chapter.**

**Max POV**

I was flying away from the flock. I was flying away from love and flying to my destiny. Worst of all I was flying away from Fang.

We had gotten Cammie to that doctor person with no trouble. He was very willing to help. We spent three days there, waiting for Cammie to get better. When she woke up we spent another three days waiting for her to be ready to fly. She finally did and we decided to leave the next day. That was yesterday. It was probably about eight a.m., and I was miles away from the flock.

All the time I was at the cabin I thought about something that doctor Rogan had said. Before I was captured Dr. Rogan said that my flock was going to die if I didn't complete my destiny. She gave me the opportunity to come with her and leave the flock but I didn't take it. Now I was flying to her in New York. I left the flock behind to keep them safe.

I was already in New York; I had flown with super speed for a long time, and was headed to the institute. I had left a note with the flock explaining everything. I had told them to go back to the river in Kansas and that I would be there once I figured this out. Hopefully that wouldn't take very long.

An hour later I found myself at the institute. A bunch of erasers were there with tazer guns. Dr. Rogan stood with her arms at her sides totally relaxed. Black was no where to be seen, crap. I was looking forward to meeting her and making her into mince meat.

"Hello Max, I had a feeling you would come."

"Shut up with the nice talk, Dr. Rogan and get to the point, I don't have all day."

This seemed to make her mad, cool.

"Okay have it your way. First my name is Eliza Rogan none of this doctor stuff. Second if your flock comes they will be destroyed. Third, do as we say and we won't kill your flock and fourth you will be trained here to take out an important person to save the world. You will be trained here to kill and to be a weapon. Once you complete your destiny you will be set free."

Eliza gave me a wicked smile and snapped her fingers. Erasers swarmed around me and one was about to shock me when an alarm went off. It was loud and there was a blinking red light going off underneath a sign that said FIRE. The sprinklers went off and everyone ran for cover. A strong hand grabbed my arm and started dragging me to the door. I struggled a little but once we were in the sewer again the hand let go.

A stood staring into the eyes of a girl about my age, at least she looked my age.

"I work for Jeb so don't be afraid of me. You need to get out of here and destroy Itex. Eliza Rogan was lying about everything. Get back to your flock. The secret headquarters is not in Paris, it's somewhere in the U.S. Paris is just another lab. Find the head lab and you will have destroyed Itex, at least for a while."

I looked at the girl. "Why are you telling me this if I was created to destroy someone?"

"Because you were created to save the world, from Itex. All the human-avian hybrids were, Jeb just made up the other story to keep you all from being killed."

"Who are you?"

"Run and don't look back. Get to your flock and save the world."

She pushed me further into the sewer; I ran and didn't look back. I got out on the street and cringed. There were erasers all around the building. They weren't morphed but they spotted me and the chase began.

I ran down the street and turned as many corners as I could. Each time I did, I lost one or two of the erasers, but there was always four or five chasing me. Normally I would turn and face them but me flock wasn't here and I had no chance against five super charged, adrenalin high, most likely drunk erasers. If only there was a place to take off then I could loose them with my super speed, but in New York that was going to be a problem.

Then I spotted it. A big bunch of trees in central park. I ran to the far corner and scurried up a large tree. I unfurled my wings and was about to take off when a hand grabbed my ankle and wouldn't let go. I looked down to see an eraser holding me while the other ones climbed up the tree.

Shoot, I forgot that they weren't morphed, man of all the stupid mistakes.

"You won't get away from us this time."

"Oh yeah, just watch me."

With my free leg I kicked the eraser in the face and he let my ankle go. The second I was free, I took off and poured on the speed. Within minutes I was miles away from the Institute and hurrying back to my flock.

**Fang POV**

I woke up to Total licking my face. It was still dark outside and when I looked at the digital clock it said, 5 a.m. Why was Total licking me at five in the morning?

"Total what do you want?"

"Something happened Fang. Max is gone."

I snapped my eyes wide open and stumbled into the living room of the cabin where Max had fallen asleep. She wasn't there. I turned around frantically when a white piece of paper caught my attention. I picked it up and my heart lurched. On the paper was a note in Max's sloppy handwriting. It read…

_Flock,_

_I am leaving for a little while. Before I was captured after the tornado, Dr. Rogan gave me a choice. She said that if I didn't come to the institute within a week she was going to have you all killed. I couldn't take that chance. I'm sorry. By now I am far away heading to the institute. I will be back! I'm only going to see what she wants, smash some eraser butt and maybe make Black eat her words and her sorry ego. Go back to the river in Kansas where we spent that one worry free night and day. I will hopefully be back, so if I'm not there with in two weeks, Fang take over. Willow, Cammie, Blade, Eel, and Raven help Fang. Go hide and don't look for me. If worse comes to worse I'm going to finish this myself. Again don't look for me. Stay hidden and if I'm not back, go back to living normal lives and Fang I love you and nothing will ever change that. I love you all, and I will miss you terribly. _

_Love Max._

"Fang?"

A tear rolled down my cheek. Max left. She left because she thought Itex would kill us. She left and now I may never see her again.

"Fang what's wrong."

I turned around to see Charm. She had an emotionless mask on, guess where she learned that from, and was looking around. When she saw me crying, the look on her face made me want to cry even more.

"Charm, please go and get Nudge for me."

She walked down the hallway and came back a minute later with a half asleep Nudge. I put the letter in her hands and waited. Nudges face twisted in shock and then she started to cry. I knew I shouldn't have done this to her but I needed to know if Max did this voluntarily or if she was forced to. By Nudges expression she did it voluntarily.

"Fang she's gone. She's really gone."

Nudges knees buckled and I caught her before she hit the floor. She started crying into my night shirt. Nudge and all the other younger kids tried to act strong but when something like this happened…

"Who's gone, Fang?"

I looked into the worried eyes of Charm. One word escaped my mouth.

"Max."

Charm's eyes went wide and she ran down the hall. Seconds, and I do mean seconds, later the whole flock was gathered around me, reading the letter. About an hour later, once most of us had gotten ourselves back together, I decided it was time to take charge.

"Max said to go back to the river and not to look for her. So, Cammie, Willow and Raven take all the younger kids to the river by the waterfall. Be prepared to stay there for a while. Eel, Iggy and Blade come with me, we're going after Max."

Eel, Iggy and Blade nodded but the other kids were shaking their heads and staring at me with what could only be described as shock, determination, sadness and anger all mixed into one.

"No way. If you think we're going to stay back you have another thing coming."

I looked at Raven. She had a HUGE stubborn streak. All the other flock members were shaking their heads.

"But it's too dangerous, we'll be spotted easily and if anything happens to you guys Max will kill me."

"So."

You can't argue with a seven year old who has been through a lot and who could control your mind. If I didn't let them come they would kill me anyway. So it was either Max killing me or the flock killing me. I'd rather take my chances with the flock killing me but they gave me no choice.

"Fine. Max said she would be back so we'll either intercept her on her way back or get her out of the institute and kick some butt. Got it?"

"Got it." Everyone said at the same time, it was kinda funny.

Three hours later we were flying high above Kansas. If Max had used her super speed, we would never catch her. Crap. So the only thing we could hope for was that she was on her way back. We flew for the rest of the day with minimal breaks and then for two more days with very, very few breaks only when necessary. I know I was pushing the flock hard but we had to find Max, and they seemed okay with our pace.

On the fourth day we were flying above the heart of Illinois. There were trees, trees more trees and farmland. No people, no big cities, and so far no erasers, which meant that we were going to find some soon, yea. Not.

"Hey Fang can we stop I'm hungry."

I looked at my watch, 3 p.m. Three hours of non-stop flight since we stopped at the small mall that had like a hundred food places. Nudge was the perfect person to tell you when it was time to eat.

"Okay but only snacks, we're running out of food." I looked down to see a small cluster of trees with wild grass growing all around it. "Land there, it looks better than nothing."

I pointed at the cluster of trees and circled. When we were all settled in and eating, it was then I noticed the heat. Man was it hot. Up in the clouds where the wind is constantly whipping at your face it's not so bad. Down on the ground though, during the summer with no wind. Oh my gosh. One bad thing about wearing all black. To all you on the ground I don't know how you put up with this heat, all I can say is more power to you.

I looked around to see the flock sweat drenched and drinking water like it was the last ever. We had to get back in the air.

"Okay guys, U and A."

We packed up quickly and I was about to take off when Sky screamed. She picked up a large stick and chucked into the bushes right in front of me. I whirled around.

"Sky what are you trying to do, kill me. That stick…"

A stopped when an eraser fell limp at my feet. He had a stick protruding from his chest.

"A bunch of erasers are coming. Their all up in the trees, if we fly they'll nab us."

I nodded at Sky. Her ability really came in handy.

"All right let's get out of these trees then take off. Run."

We all started to run. I heard twigs snap and growling coming from behind us. Erasers oh great.

"Fang, the erasers weren't actually after us to begin with they were waiting here for someone else."

"Who Angel."

We came to the edge of the woods and stopped. I grabbed Red and Gazzy with my free hands to keep them from taking off. In front of us were a lot of erasers to put it mildly. About half were on the ground and half were in the sky, we even had a few behind us. The erasers didn't seem to have any weapons but they had wicked, evil smiles on their faces.

The erasers hadn't seen us which was good; instead they were looking at the sky. I stepped out and looked to see what was soooooooooooooo interesting. What I saw made me wish I hadn't stepped out. Up in the sky was about five erasers, four were circling and laughing while the other one was holding…

"Max!"

**Review and tell me what you think. Sorry it took me so long to post htis chapter. I still need ideas as to what to do next. I do know I'm bringing in two very unexpected people. Again review please because the more reviews the faster I get chapters up.**


	12. The New Couples

**Oh my goodness, thank you all who reviewed. (I'm probably going to type that a lot) Oh and if your having a bad day read some of these one liners. If you guys like them I will post different ones each time I update. (I didn't make them)**

**Come to the dark side, we have cookies.**

**If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.**

**Lottery: A tax on people who are bad at math.**

**Never answer an anonymous letter.**

**He who laughs last thinks slowest.**

**I don't suffer from insanity; I enjoy every minute of it. ****Here's another chapter.**

**Max POV**

I had one eraser holding me while four others beat the crap out of me. There were also hundreds on the ground, great. I wasn't going to get out of this easily. An eraser kicked me hard in the stomach and if I wasn't being held I would have dropped like lead.

_Max pain is just a message saying that you have to kick some eraser butt big time._

_Since when did you change your "pain is a message" line?_

_When you decided to leave the flock. You know they're not going to obey you._

Another eraser punched me hard in the jaw. I felt hot blood trickle out of the side of my mouth.

_How do you know that Jeb?_

_Look down._

I looked down to see my flock in full fledged battle with the erasers. That was going to make my job easier and harder.

"Hey Lane, how's about we take Max here, and have a little fun. Then her spirit would definitely be broken."

"Sure why not, it's not like we can have any fun with Black. She's with that Ari guy."

All the erasers had smiles on their faces, and my mind went into shock hearing Ari's name but I quickly recovered.

_Max, I was able to save Ari. He lived past his expiration date. He works for me now as one of my spies and he's good too. _

_Why didn't you tell me that my half brother was alive?_

_It never came up? Oh bother._

"Can you say eew much?" I said while the eraser known as Lane stroked me face. I know what your thinking, why don't I fight back, I was waiting for one of the erasers to make a mistake. The eraser holding me started to fly away. Perfect mistake number one. I wiggled and squirmed and even bit the eraser who was holding me. His grip loosened just a bit and I squirmed free, and he just stayed were he was. Mistake number two. I landed a kick that was aimed at his exposed stomach, a little lower. Ouch. The other four were barreling towards me randomly. Mistake number, oh you get the picture. They soon were on their way down to earth.

I flew back to the flock and surveyed the scene, they were holding their own. I flew down, tucked my wings in and landed squarely on three erasers that were behind Nudge. They all landed with loud whooshing sounds. I touched each one, sending sudden bursts of emotion that killed the erasers instantly.

Just to get you caught up a little bit, while we were waiting for Cammie to heal, I worked on controlling my new ability. It was cool after all, and very helpful. I learned how to sense someone else's emotions without touching them and not send any of my emotions their way unless I touched them and willed it.

"Max, oh my gosh, you're okay. We were all so worried about you and Fang thought he would never see you again and you look like crap!"

"Glad to see you too Nudge."

I flung myself at two erasers who were attacking Sky. One of them I touched and he fell limp in a second, the other I landed a solid round about kick into his chest knocking him backwards. Sky took over from there and I got into another fray of erasers who were surrounding Raven. All of her animal friends easily took out erasers by themselves, but this made Raven a big target with the erasers. I took two down when one eraser lashed some very sharp claws acrossed my upper arm. I looked down to see, four bleeding scratches making my arm scream in pain.

I touched the eraser and sent him major anger emotions. He dropped like a rock, he he he. I kept flinging myself at erasers, and the erasers slowly started to retreat. I decided to end it right there and then.

I flew up and focused intently on a group of three erasers around Tint and Angel. They dropped allowing Tint to keep fighting and Angel to fly up to me. Another thing I figured out was my ability could be enhanced when Angel joined. We would hold hands and I would be able to take down as many as five erasers at once. Soon the battle was over and I was spent. I flew down to the ground with Angel close behind me. To all who are curious, I didn't discover anything else with my new ability but I was now able to fly at two hundred and eighty miles an hour for a while.

"MAX!"

I landed and was bombarded with my flock and a ton of questions. The one person I didn't see was Fang. Crud I was going to hear it from him, but he was also going to hear it from me. He disobeyed my orders and could have gotten the flock killed.

_Then you shouldn't have left them in the first place._

_Itex would have killed them._

_How do you know?_

_Aagh. Shut up Jeb._

Later that night we had found a large town with a hotel. I ended up getting six rooms of all different sizes with my mysterious bank card that never ran out. Guess who got the only room that sleeps two? Fang and I. Fang hadn't spoken to me at all during the day. He seemed distant and was constantly flying at the back of the flock. I was put under oath when I discovered my new ability, not to intrude on the flock's emotions so I reframed myself from snooping. I was really tempted though.

When we got our rooms I told the flock to dump an outfit of their own they didn't wear anymore. They happily obliged as we were right next to a huge mall and I had told them we were going shopping tomorrow. I also ran over quickly, got a ton of bath and shower stuff and told each of the flock members to take a long hot shower. They also did that very happily. So finally when I got my shower over and was flipping through the channels on the T.V. Fang decided to talk.

"What were you thinking Max?"

"Wow it speaks. I was thinking about you and the flock. I could never have forgiven myself if one of you died because of me. I'm sorry if I hurt or scared you or both but I did what I felt was right and I also found out some valuable info. So yell and be mad all you like but it's not going to change how I feel."

I felt happy with my reply; it gave Fang no room for a sudden, smart mouthed retort. Evil laugh, muahahaha. Fang sighed.

"Max I was scared and hurt but I was also worried. I love you."

With that Fang promptly leaned over and kissed me. Man that boy can kiss. When we broke apart I had a huge grin on my face.

"I love you to Fang."

My grin promptly fell from my face when I felt Iggy's emotions running wild in the room next to us. I know I was put under oath from my flock, but unbeknown to them, when we were separated like this I always had tabs on them.

"What's wrong Max?"

"Something's going on with Iggy in the next room. Nudge is with him. Their talking and Iggy is really nervous."

We snuck over to the connecting door between our rooms and carefully opened it a crack. Just large enough to see and hear through.

"Nudge I know you and I had crushes on each other for a while, but they were just temporary crushes. I'm really sorry if I'm hurting you but I just like you as a friend or a sister, nothing more. I kind of have some strong feelings for…"

"Raven. I know Iggy. It's really easy to tell you like her and she is like so totally crushing on you too. You should talk to her. I'm fine with this really, because…"

Fang closed the door before we could hear Nudge finish. He looked at me with a solemn expression and was met with my face that was twisted because I was ready to burst out laughing. Fang looked confused which made me laugh hysterically.

"This isn't funny Max. Is Nudge really okay?"

"She's more than okay, she has a boyfriend and she was just going to tell Iggy what he just told her. Fang, Nudge and Ice have been together ever since Iggy started to like Raven."

Fang's face twisted and he burst out laughing as well. When we finally calmed down I turned the T.V. to Americas Funniest Home Videos, and this started up another fit of laughter that lasted for an hour. About eleven, I went to all the rooms, checked on my flock then crawled into bed. Fang lay next to me and soon his breathing became regular and even. I was lulled into the blissful sleep with Fangs strong arms wrapped around my waist. Bliss.

**Hey review review review. I love reviews from all the chapters, especially the new ones I post. I will have the next chapter up in a few days so I want at least 36 reviews. That's not hard. Tell me if you guys want those one liners at the beginning of each chapter and if so tell me some. So review and I'll have the next chapter up soon.**


	13. The Last Day

**Hey so yeah I decided to put up those one liners, so if you don't like it, too bad, you'll live. Thanks for the reviews. This chapter will be pretty boring for a while but it will get better, but don't skip through the beginning there is some important stuff in there. Here's anther chapter.**

"Max which one do I get? The short cut, or the long one, or the curly one? Look this girl has a mow hawk, yuck. Maybe I'll get my hair curled, oh I don't know what do you think Max?"

I looked at the hair stylist and she gave me a sympathetic look. If Nudge wasn't going to decide I would.

"Just cut it about shoulder length."

"Sure ma'am."

We were at the mall and everyone was getting hair cuts. Nudge and Tint were the only ones left. None of us had anything big done, just trimmed on the edges. I was already about to go crazy from 'Max this, and Max that.' My flock started to sound like a broken record. Ugh.

Once we were all done, I paid and we all walked into the center of the mall. When I said that this mall was huge I wasn't kidding. There were so many stores and people I constantly did 360's to see if any of the people looked eraserish. I was really jumpy and couldn't wait to walk out.

"Max, what's that?"

I looked to see where Star was pointing. A large cart with people all around it was dead smack in the middle of the mall.

"I don't know. You guys stay here; I'm going to check it out."

I walked over to the cart and was startled when someone spoke behind me.

"I'm sorry miss if I scared you, but would you be interested in having our stylists take you and your family on a shopping trip. Each person in your family would get one free outfit, as long as it's one of the ones our stylists pick out."

Hello, _dev a voe. _My mind wandered back to the grocery store in New York where my original flock of six got makeovers. If it worked once maybe we could get lucky again with our cloths and man did we need it.

"That would be nice sir, but my parents are out of town and it's just us kids. I mean, you don't need parent consent do you?"

Yeah, yeah I know. Max is using manners, take note because this will be the only time.

"No we don't need parent permission for the clothing. So if you would like to enter for the drawing just fill out this card here," the sales guy pulled out an index card and handed it to me. "We can have you entered in the drawing."

"Just one more question, I have _a lot_ of… family here with me today. You guys would do them all?"

"Yes."

So as you already guessed, I filled out the card until it asked for a name. I signed Ella Martinez and smiled. I loved using my step sister's name. When I returned to the flock who were waiting by a fountain, I smiled and told them the news. Fang, Blade, Eel and Iggy weren't happy about it, but oh well. They seemed to be acting really strange lately. Oh well.

We waited ten minutes for the drawing to start. When it finally did, I saw Nudge and Sprinkle cross their fingers. Lights on the cart went off and people gathered around and were silent when a young guy, maybe in his twenties, came and pulled a card out of this spinning bin.

"And the Winner is… Ella Martinez and her family. Ella come to the both within ten minutes to claim your all expense paid shopping trip."

Nudge and all the younger girls jumped up, cheered and then started to bombard me with what they wanted and all that junk. Again I say ugh. I really didn't care what I looked like as long as I could fight in it and it was comfortable. This normally meant jeans, a T-shirt and my sweatshirt.

When most of the people had gone away from the booth, I took my flock up and smiled at the guy who had told me about this so called amazing deal. His eyes nearly bulged out of his sockets when he saw my whole flock, or as far as he knew, my family.

"This is your whole family. How many are there and how are you all related."

"Yes this is my family, there are twenty one of us and this is my extended family. At least all the kids. Sir you said you would serve all of us and I tried to warn you that I had a big family."

"Okay, we have six stylists, so six at a time and when you go I need your names."

I nodded at the guy and made a hand signal behind my back, that told the flock to lie.

"Who will be going first?" The guy pulled out a clip board and three girls and three guys stepped down from the booth. They I guessed, were the stylists.

"I will, I'm Ella Martinez." I pointed to Fang "He's Nick." I also pulled Sprinkle, Coal, Red, and Star forward. "These kids are Sara, (Sprinkle) David, (Coal) Jason, (Red) and Rachel, (Star.) We'll be going first."

The rest of my flock went and sat down by the fountain and, I was paired up with a one of the girl stylists. She was tall and skinny, had curly blond hair, blue eyes and a major love for sparkles. She led me to a large store and picked out millions of cloths for me. For all of them I pretty much said "no." So we finally agreed on a red T-shirt with some dark blue jeans that flared at the bottom, and a black cloth belt. It was pretty good by my standards.

When we got back to the fountain, I was the first back and Willow went with the stylists I had, but instead of Willow she was Susan. Just f.y.i, she hates the name Susan, hehehe. You want to know the worst part though, after we got our new cloths the stylists made us put them on instead of the cloths we were already wearing. So when a member of my flock came back, they would have new cloths on and a small bag with their old cloths in it. We also circulated. So when someone came back someone else would go shopping.

Fang came back in his usual black outfit but his shirt had "Bite Me" in red on the front. So him. Sprinkle came back in a grey shirt with a black camie underneath, a jean skirt with some very tight grey pants under the skirt. She loved the outfit and you want to know how I know, she kept saying "I love it, I love it, I love it," over and over. Her and Nudge could talk, but sometimes Sprinkle easily out talked Nudge. That alone I never thought was possible and now that it's happened I don't like talking much.

Coal came back in a bright green shirt with dark green stripes on the sleeves, and in your regular old blue jeans. When Star came back she looked a lot older, she had on a black shirt with a maroon cover and black jeans. Red came back and got hammered on by his sisters. He wore a grey shirt that said, 'Lost: dog and sisters, reward for dog,' and had on black jeans that had holes in the knees.

Willow came back in a hot pink spaghetti strap shirt, black jeans and had on a cool looking white and black belt. She also came back with three phone numbers from some really hot looking guys. Blade had on a black shirt with 'Don't Mess With Me' on it and in blue jeans. Eel had on a silver t-shirt that said 'What' acrossed it and in light blue jeans. Raven came back in a spaghetti strap shirt that had a heart on it and it went from the color peach to pink and had on dark blue jeans.

All in all, it took us about four hours to get everyone outfitted. I won't bore you with what everyone else had on, but let me just say we looked like normal kids. The only problem was the stylists had thrown out our sweatshirts, so we had to go buy new ones for everybody which added another hour onto our shopping day.

When we got out of the mall, I honestly was exhausted. I hated shopping, (sorry to all you who love to shop) and just wanted to take a nap. I left Fang in charge of the flock at a fast food restaurant, while I went straight to the hotel to get our rooms for another night.

When I walked into the room Fang and I were in I stopped, turned around and walked to the other rooms my flock occupied, and I did the same thing in all of them. After I checked the last room I sat down in the hallway and thought. Each of our rooms had been ransacked and destroyed. There had been deep claw marks on the walls and other evidence of erasers. The thing that worried me the most was, in the room I had slept in with Fang there was a letter that had said since I refused to cooperate, Itex would go back to hunting us down and trying to capture us.

We were on the run again while trying to stop Itex from completing their plan. The note again had said if I went with the erasers next time we met, Itex would forget all about my flock. If I didn't, my flock would be killed. Ugh, I hated the new director.

I got up and started to walk to the restaurant. I wasn't going to leave the flock again. About half way there I met up with my flock and I signaled them to do a U and A. They all did soundlessly, (we were in an ally where no one could see us) and I took them to a now plowed corn field on the edge of town. I looked at my flock and they also looked back at me with worry. I hadn't spoken on the way here, not even to Fang.

"Max, what's going on?"

I looked into Fangs eyes. They were so deep and now emotionless. Even so they were comforting and all I wanted to do was hug Fang and have everything go away.

"Erasers ransacked the rooms we were staying in at the hotel."

"Are you sure Max?"

I continued to tell the flock about what I had seen but left out the note. Amazingly I was able to lie convinsingly enough that neither Fang nor anyone else in my flock think I left anything out. Once I finished I searched the eyes of my flock hoping for a reaction, unfortunately it wasn't what I expected.

Out of no where, Sky and Angel both screamed "Willow" and knocked her to the ground. A split second later I heard a gunshot and a bullet where Willow once stood sliced through thin air, catching me in the shoulder and sending my flock on the defense. Blade sent one of his energy balls into the bushes where the shot had come from and an eraser fell to the ground, dead. I whizzed around looking everywhere knowing that there would be more erasers somewhere when a second shot was fired.

Fang got a vacant look in his eye and blood started to soak his shirt by his shoulder. He fell to the ground unconscious, and I rushed to him. There was a hole in his shirt and there was blood everywhere. I had a flash back to the night on the beach when Fang had almost died at the hands of my half brother Ari. More shots were fired and one by one, my flock fell to the ground. I looked up to see a bunch of erasers heading my way. I stood up and faced them, ready to kick butt.

"What will it be Max. Come and your flock will live or die along side them."

I had no choice. I had to go or my flock would die. I sighed and admitted defeat.

"I'll go."

An eraser whipped out a cell phone and dialed a strange number, he said that my flock would be taken to some place where they would be healed and taken care of then let go. Another gave me a notebook and told me to write a note to my flock and explain. I wrote a thirty page note and when I was done I was led away from my flock and Fang. My last thoughts were I was going to get away and that I was going to finish this by myself one way or another.

**Review and tell me what you think please. I'm going away for a week so I won't be able to update, but I want to come home to a lot of reviews. Oh and here are some more one liners.**

**Campers: Natures way of feeding mosquitoes.**

**If at first you don't succeed, don't try skydiving.**

**The Big Bang Theory: God spoke and BANG it happened.**

**What happens if you get scared half to death twice?**

**Who is 'General Failure' and why is he reading my hard drive?**

**I've had amnesia as long as I can remember.**

**So please please review and I will update as soon as I can if I get reviews.**


	14. Erasers Ruin Everything

**A/N: Oh my gosh, I had so many reviews when I came back. Thanks to ya'll. I may be posting a little slower than normal coming up soon, so sorry about that. Special thanks to, danceswithwings 119, Argetlam girl, Maximum Ride all the way, Evil Angel of DOOM, Ceesy Phantom, and maxridefan 95. If you reviewed and your not up here, sorry, and you get a cyber cookie.**

**Disclaimer: Don't own Max Ride wish I did. Don't own the song in this chapter either.**

**Claimer: I own the plot and the new characters of this fantic. **

**Here are some of those one liners:**

**Consciousness: That annoying time between naps. **

**The severity of the itch is inversely proportional to the ability to reach it. **

**Be nice to your kids. They'll choose your nursing home.**

**Nothing is fool proof to a sufficiently talented fool. Here's another chapter.**

**Eliza Rogan POV at Paris headquarters**

"I don't care what it takes just get her back here. NOW!"

"Yes ma'am, shall we test our latest version of erasers?"

"Yes. Now go away from me and don't come back until you have some good news. And Rachel bring me the hybrid known as Fang as well."

"Yes ma'am."

Rachel closed the door and left. She was actually a very good assistant. Always obedient and never complaining. I looked down at my desk and saw the file on Fang. If anything he would convince Max to cooperate with us. So one way or another we were getting a hold of Max… and Fang.

**Max POV**

I'm a spy and only sixteen. I'm a girl on a mission, waiting for her chance. I'm Maximum Ride and I want out of Itex's control. You all know how I was forced to go with those erasers and leave my flock behind, which was about a year ago. Many things have happened since then; just a quick over view is kinda long but oh well.

After the erasers forced me to go with them, I was shoved on a plane and taken to the Paris lab. That one lady whom I met was right; Paris was not the official headquarters of the Itex Corporation. It was big but not big enough.

While I was there I had many experiments done on me and the white coats tried to train me to be a weapon, but I never did anything they told me to, hehehe. One night Jeb contacted me through my head (he was still my voice) and through one of his spies. I was asked to be a temporary spy and said yes. I found out tons of info, but nothing on my flock.

About three months later, Jeb and the same spy guy who first talked to me helped me escape. So now I'm back in the U.S. and constantly looking for my flock. I haven't had a run in with an eraser since I escaped, which means I'll probably see at least one soon. I also have four good friends who know about my wings and all. They help Jeb with junk going on in the school, but their not hybrids. We travel around New York in our band. Yes, I did say band. I'm the lead singer, turns out I'm actually really good, who knew.

Anyway there's, David our base guitar player, Sara our drummer, Myra, our keyboardists, and Evan, the back up singer and electric guitar player, while I sing and write our songs too.

"Max you ready, we're on in five."

"Yeah hang on a second."

We were currently in a hotel/ coffee shop/ restaurant and about to play some of our new songs. My flock would be a year older by now and they probably all hate me. I grabbed our music and we went on stage. The large ballroom where we were performing at was packed, and when I say packed I mean crammed to the max full of people.

A cheer came from the crowd once we were all ready to go. I looked at Evan and he nodded, so we started.

"I lie here paralytic

Inside this soul

Screaming to you till

My throat is numb.

I wanna break out, I need a way out

I don't believe that It's gotta be this way

The worst is, the waiting

In this room I'm suffocating."

I was getting ready to sing the next verse when I felt a strange pull on my emotions. I put up my mental blocks Jeb taught me and looked around again. I followed the emotional pull to the back of the ballroom. I looked closely and saw a bunch of kids. A few looked my age while others were younger.

"Feel your presence

Filling up my lungs with oxygen

I take you in

I've died."

I again stared at the group of kids when my eyes fell on one in particular. A tall guy with black hair, and wearing all black cloths. Then realization hit.

"Rebirthing now

I wanna live for love

Wanna live for you and me

Breathe for the first time now

I come alive somehow

Rebirthing now

I wanna live my life

Wanna give you everything

Breathe for the first time now

I come alive somehow

Right now

Right now."

It was Fang, and the whole flock. They were sitting at the end of the room, watching and listening to me sing, great.

"I lie here lifeless

In this cocoon

Shedding my skin cause

I'm ready to

I wanna break out, I found a way out

I don't believe that It's gotta be this way

The worst, is the waiting

In this room I'm suffocating

Feel your presence

Filling up my lungs with oxygen

I take you in

I've died."

Something must have happened, because Fangs eyes widened then went back to their normal size. The flock then got up and left. Crud.

"Rebirthing now

I wanna live for love

Wanna live for you and me

Breathe for the first time now

I come alive somehow

Rebirthing now

I wanna live my life

Wanna give you everything

Breathe for the first time now

I come alive somehow

Right now

Right now"

My mind was going into overdrive. My flock just left and they hadn't even recognized me. I didn't blame them though. I had dyed my hair a deep brown, was a little taller, and was wearing nothing to fancy, just jeans and a black T-shirt.

"Tell me when I'm gonna live again

Tell me when I'm gonna breathe you in

Tell me when I'm gonna feel inside

Tell me when I'm gonna feel alive."

I had to catch up to the flock before they got too far but we were supposed to sing for an hour.

"Tell me when I'm gonna live again

Tell me when I'm gonna breathe you in

Tell me when I'm gonna feel inside

Tell me when I'm gonna feel alive."

I made one of my snap decisions. After this song I was going to tell Evan to take over and I was going after the flock.

"Rebirthing now

I wanna live for love

Wanna live for you and me

Breathe for the first time now

I come alive somehow

Rebirthing now

I wanna live my life

Wanna give you everything

Breathe for the first time now

I come alive somehow

Right now, I come alive somehow

Right now, I come alive somehow."

The song was done and I walked over to Evan. I told him about what I saw and he took over for me. I walked off stage and out into a back ally behind the building. I was about to take off when I heard a bunch of voices. I quickly ducked behind a dumpster and peeked around the corner, and there they were. The flock was just standing around arguing. I remembered Sky's and Angel's abilities and was thankful that my mental blocks were up. They had no idea I was there. I was about to step out when I heard what they were talking about. Fang's voice finally rose above the rest and I listened.

"Look everyone, I know we all miss Max but there's nothing we can do about it right now. She escaped from the Paris laboratory and now she could be anywhere. So all we can do is wait."

The grief in Fangs voice was unmistakable. I listened to the flocks conversations for about an hour. The flock had grown up, they all looked at least a year older and were doing well under Fangs leadership, but there was a touch of sorrow in their voices. When I reached out to feel their emotions all I felt was, hurt, loss, grief, sorrow and anger. A deep seated, burning anger directed at the erasers and white coats.

_I'm not surprised their angry Max, they miss you terribly and want you back. They're mad at the director for taking you away from them. _

_Good to finally here from you Jeb. What was it, three months since I heard from you? I was beginning to think I didn't have a voice inside my head._

_Sorry you're not getting rid of me that easy._

_Jeb, did you know where the flock was?_

_No. I would have told you other wise._

I stopped and thought about what I was going to do. How I was going to step out and tell the flock who I was. I finally decided on doing a test. I would double back and act like I was lost. I would see if the flock recognized me and if they didn't I would just suddenly recognize them. To me it was perfect.

So I quietly doubled back and then casually walked up the flock. They turned around and stared at me. I put my plan into action.

"Excuse me, would you by chance know how to get to Central Park. I saw you when I was singing and my band and I have no idea how to get to Central Park."

I looked at Fang and all of a sudden saw his eyes sparkle. He was just about to saw something when Jeb shimmed in.

_Max look on the roof. There are a bunch of erasers and they're after you… and Fang._

I looked up and the roof and saw a bunch of erasers aiming dart guns me. More than likely the darts had some stuff in it that would make us sleep or something like that. So I again, made one of my famous split second decisions.

I turned around, ran a couple of feet through the flock to the other end of the ally, the end facing fields and no people, and opened my wings. I had all the erasers pointing those stupid guns at me and not the flock, now all I could do was fight for all I was worth.

"Hey dog boys, you want me, come and get me."

I took a quick running start and flapped my wings, in a second I was up in the air with darts whizzing past me and erasers now coming after me. I had, had enough of erasers taunting us, so I decided to taunt them.

"You really think you can catch me, dog breaths. I can out fly you any day. Especially with those things on your backs you call wings."

The lead eraser stopped in mid air and turned around. I heard 'she's right' and 'get the others' that's when I knew I had made a mistake. The erasers turned around and started to head back to the flock, but I was faster.

The flock was in the air coming towards the erasers. They looked ready to fight. I flew over the erasers and turned around about five feet in front of Fang. We all stopped and had a second before the on slot of erasers hit us.

**Fang POV**

Max flew about five feet in front of me then turned around. I was able to catch a glimpse of her face, hard, cold and determined. It really was Max, she was back and she could sing, really well too. Her hands were clenched into fists and her whole body was rigid and ready to fight. Then the erasers hit.

Max punched one in the face so hard he instantly fell to the ground with his wings tucked in. I flew underneath one eraser, kicked him in the gut, then flew up above him and snapped his wings together. He fell within about five feet of the ground, snapped his wings out and crash landed. I smiled and turned to another eraser, he took a little more time but he soon went down with his friend.

After I finished off my third eraser, I started to notice that the newer erasers were the ones who were still flying. I flew above the fight and confirmed it to be true. All the newer erasers were lasting the longest because they were more nimble were faster, matching almost every move the flock made.

I saw Angel point to an eraser then point to the ground, the eraser got a dazed look on his face then fell. I smiled again and mentally laughed, the erasers couldn't match our abilities though. Mental note though, stop smiling so much.

Clouds had rolled in while we had been talking, but now the whole sky was dark and the wind was picking up. Thank goodness though, this wasn't tornado weather. As a very dark cloud passed over us, slowly I might add, I blended in with the dark sky and became a shadow. I snuck up on an eraser who was holding Tint in a chook hold and clapped my hands over his ears. I heard a soft pop then the eraser let Tint go, and clasped his ears. Tint began to fall and I caught and swung her back into the air. She whipped out her wings then proceeded to turn invisible.

I looked down at the ground to see Max fighting a bunch of erasers, while the rest of us fought in the air. I was just aiming towards the ground to help Max when Max looked up and yelled something. I couldn't hear her but when she said it again she pointed behind me and I turned around.

Two erasers were barreling at me at full speed. I spun around, just narrowly missing the eraser blows. I looked at the ground again to see that Max wasn't as fortunate. The two erasers had slowed down a lot, but they still landed really hard into the ground, smashing into Max. I tried to go help but two more erasers came at me.

Soon the fight was over and there were erasers all over the ground. I had a small cut on my upper arm and a bruise under my eye. Blade came over to me and he actually looked better, he only had a bruise forming on his arm.

"Fang you okay?"

"Yeah, cover your ears. REPORT."

I yelled report out of a Max induced habit.

"We're fine here, very minor injuries."

Sprinkle, Coal, Red, and Star were all flying towards us. Ice, Charm, Nudge, and Sky were close behind, followed by everyone else. The only flock members I didn't see was Angel and Tint.

"Where's Angel and Tint?"

"Fang the trees."

I looked to see where Willow and Raven were pointing. Down in a grove of trees, two very big erasers were holding unconscious Angel and Tint. Max stood in front of them and looked about ready to wring the erasers neck. Two guns pointed at Angel and Tint stopped her. I signaled for everyone to fly to the ground. Once we got there the erasers noticed us and started talking.

"If any of you makes a move, we'll kill the girls."

Using the distraction I lunged towards the woods to my left where there were shadows galor. One of the erasers aimed his gun at me. I heard someone scream no, then something plowed into me and then there was a gun shot.

**Cliffhanger, hehehe, please review and I'll have a new chapter up soon. Oh and just because I haven't said this yet, please do not use my characters in another story unless you ask. Review, please.**


	15. Ready to Lead

**A/N: Thanks to all who reviewed, you get a cyber cookie, but I only got like four reviews for the last chapter. So when you read my chapters please review, I want to know what you guys think. Anyway, here's another chapter.**

**Max POV**

I saw Fang lung for the woods to my right, but so did the free eraser. He ran after Fang while pulling out his gun. I heard Star scream no and my mind went into protect-flock-mode. I didn't think just acted on instinct, so when Fang passed by me I plowed into him with all my strength, sending us to the ground. A gun shot went off and a bullet whizzed by my ear. That was close.

I hit my head on the ground so hard that I saw stars. Fang's breath left him with a whoosh, and he was momentarily shocked. I heard fighting going on and felt a little pity for the erasers, that is until I remembered all that they had done to me.

I stood up and so did Fang. Surveying the scene I saw Uno and three of his clones battling one eraser, Charm had another trapped in one of her mirages and Blade had just knocked one to the ground. I turned to look at Fang as he looked at me. His dark eyes were so deep and full of relief. A single tear slid down my face, stinging my cheek when it hit a scratch. Fang reached up to wipe it away but I pulled away from him.

The one thing I had learned while in Paris was that I had to be invincible, emotionless, and self relying Max. I couldn't have feelings for Fang anymore unless I wanted him killed. I could still love him as one of the flock members and like a brother but nothing more, at least not until I saved the world. It was going to be hard though, since I liked him anyways.

The hurt expression on Fangs face almost made me cry again, but I turned away to see Trent coming towards me. He stopped a few feet in front of me and I saw him crying. He was trying to be strong; I could tell, but was failing horribly.

"Max is it really you? Are you here to stay?"

I crossed the few feet to Trent, got down on one knee to his level and smiled. Tears slid unchecked down my face while I just looked at him. He had grown so much over the past year and most likely wasn't the same kid.

"Yes Trent it's me and I'm here to stay if you guys want me back."

Trent collapsed into my arms giving me a huge hug. When we broke apart I noticed Willow was smiling and she herself was crying. Actually everyone but the older guys were crying.

"Are you ready to lead again Max?"

I broke out into a huge grin and hugged Willow. They actually wanted me back, my flock wanted me back. It meant that they had forgiven me already.

_Of course they forgave you Max. They missed you. They don't blame you one bit for what you did. Now come to Arizona. One of my spies found a lead. Maybe that's where the headquarters are._

_Thanks Jeb._

_No problem, just be sure you visit._

"So Max are you ready to lead?"

"Yes guys I am."

All the younger kids shouted and jumped up and down. So we were going to Arizona. A pretty big state that's hot with a lot of empty space. Perfect for Itex.

"So Max what do we do know?" I smiled at Red's asking glance.

"Do you guys have anything here that you need?"

"Yeah our packs, but they're close by."

"Okay we're going to get your stuff then head to Arizona. Jeb thinks that there is a good chance the headquarters is located there."

Everyone nodded then I jumped into the air, unfurled my wings, and waited for everyone else to do the same. They led me to a run down building on the coast, got their stuff, then we headed off again. I had decided to follow the coast down to Texas then fly directly to Arizona. Yeah I know it would take longer, but I needed to get to know my flock again and I liked the beaches and ocean.

Later we stopped for the night at a small but nice hotel. To my surprise the flock gave one of the rooms to me and Fang, great.

Our room had one queen sized bed and a futon. I threw my backpack on the futon and sat down. We had gone shopping really quickly and now were ready to go. I just wish I was ready.

Fang walked down into the room and set his stuff down. It was about ten p.m. and I had already said good night to everyone. I moved my stuff on the floor and lay down. Fang went into the bathroom and I heard the shower running a few minutes later. My head hit the pillow and I was out like a light.

**Fang POV**

Once I got out of the shower, I got dressed then went into the room. Max had fallen asleep on the futon. She had to have been tired. I put my stuff away then crawled into the bed. The rest of the flock would already be asleep by now. I turned off the lamp and fell asleep soon after.

A loud thump woke me up. The room was still dark and the clock said 3 a.m. I looked but didn't see anything. There was another loud thump but this time it was the lamp by Max falling off the desk.

"Max are you okay?"

No answer. I got out of bed, turned the light on and went to check on Max. She had sweat pouring down her face and she was lying on the floor, jerking around.

"Max!"

I ran over to her and put her head on my lap, trying to wake her up. I had seen this happen to Max before. She was having another one of her dreams and if we didn't wake her up she would hurt herself.

"Oh crud."

**Review, review, review. The more reviews I get the faster I post. And I don't have anymore of those one liners, sorry. Anyway, again I say, review. Just click that little button at the bottom of the screen.**


	16. Three Month Warning

**Hey what's up, I got like a few reviews and that was it. So if you're reading my story review after you read each chapter please. Anyway here's another chapter.**

**Max's POV (These are all flashbacks she's having in her dream)**

I saw my flock, my original flock of six all when we were younger. I was only eight, and still a captive at the school. We were all in dog crates, even Angel who wasn't even a year old yet. I saw all this like I was a ghost floating at the top of the ceiling. Some white coats came in and the flock huddled in the back of their cages.

Something like a deep seated burning rage swept over me and I flew down, intent on hurting the white coats. But all I did was pass through them. I screamed but it seemed that no one heard me. Then I remembered that I had fallen asleep, I was dreaming, and watching some of my memories. I racked my brain trying to remember what was going to happen next, and then I wished I hadn't.

One of the white coats opened Iggy's cage and they took him away. That was the last time I saw him and he was still able to see me. (Well before Iggy got his vision back) This was when the white coats tried to improve Iggy's vision, making him blind. I shut my eyes and when I opened them again I was somewhere different.

I was floating outside the school on a cloudy, rainy summer night. A door opened and out stepped Jeb holding Angel and leading Fang, Iggy, Gazzy, Nudge and I, to a van parked outside of the school. That was the night Jeb helped us escape.

The scene changed and I saw Fang and Ari fighting. Ari ripped his claws acrossed Fangs stomach, and then flew away. I knew what would happen after that and I cringed. Almost loosing Fang was one of the worst experiences of my life.

The scene changed again and I was back in our cabin, with my flock and Willows flock. We were introducing ourselves and I laughed. The flock had grown so much since then. The scene changed again but I caught only a few seconds of it, then it changed. The flashbacks were going fast and I only saw each one for a moment.

Finally they stopped and I was floating a top a field. Total, Eel, Ice, Sky, Nudge and I were standing around crying. The ground in front of them had been recently dug up and I saw there was a large rock with writing on it. I looked closer to see the names of my flock that weren't standing with me, carved on the stone. There was also some writing but I couldn't make it out.

From behind came a bunch of erasers with guns. They shot my remaining flock members and laughed. The me I was seeing, cried out and collapsed. The erasers came over, grabbed her and hauled her away.

_Max you must save the world or your flock is doomed. They will die and you will be forced to do what Itex says._

_Jeb what's going on?_

_You are seeing what might happen. Either this will happen or you might die saving the world. If you save the world, your flock will live, if not…_

_Okay I get it so what am I supposed to do?_

_You know what you have to do, as to how, you'll figure it out. Now Max get going you only have three months and that may seem like a long time, but it's not._

I felt Jeb's mind leave and I heard another voice wafting through my dreams. It sounded like Fangs. I opened my eyes to see that my head was in his lap and I was sweat drenched. Fang had a very worried look on his face and I started to cry. I sat up and hugged Fang as tight as I could. Fang, in turn, hugged me back just as hard.

"Max don't ever do that again. I thought…"

"I'm sorry Fang."

We broke apart and I stood up. My legs felt like rubber and I nearly fell. Except for the fact that Fang caught me.

"What was your dream about Max?"

"Fang if I tell you, you have to promise not to tell anyone else."

"I promise."

"My dream was about a lot of stuff but most importantly, we have three months to stop Itex or the flock will be destroyed."

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	17. A Talking Cat, Who Knew

**Okay guys thanks. I got a lot more reviews this time. Keep up the reviewing. And I'm going away again for about a week so I won't be able to post for a while, plus school for me starts on the 4****th**** so I will also be posting slower than normal because of that as well. Here's another chapter, enjoy.**

**Fang POV**

It's been a week since that night in the hotel and what an awful week it's been. First, I find out we only have three months to save the world or we'll all die. Second, Max even though she's back, is distant and won't talk to anyone. Well she talks but not about that year away from us. When anyone tries to bring it up she avoids the subject. Third, two days ago Max told me that we couldn't have feelings for each other any more. What's up with that? I mean did she meet someone else while she was at the school or what. Fourth, Ari showed up and told us that the real Itex headquarters was confirmed to be somewhere in Arizona. Just FYI, I still don't trust Ari. Lastly, we haven't seen one evil eraser that attacked us in a week and it's driving me crazy.

So my week has been crazy and confusing. The only comforting thing is that Max is back and she's gotten to know the flock already. I mean come on, in one week that's really good. Oh and Max hasn't had another killing dream since the night at the hotel so that's another plus.

"Fang, did you just hear a word I just said."

"A what, sorry Total I was just day dreaming, what was it you were talking about?"

Total sighed and resumed talking. Something about Tint and Angel secretly hiding a small fuzzy, grey kitten with big blue eyes in Angels backpack. I really wasn't listening. We were currently on a deserted beach in South Carolina about an hour and a half flight to Savanna, Georgia. (Maps on the lab top rock.) The flock were all in the water playing around in the shallows, except for me. Total was drench and sand covered. I did have my swimming trunks on but I really didn't want to get wet.

"FANG! Are you listening?"

Total's voice brought me back.

"Sorry Total say what ever you were saying again."

"I said there is a fuzzy grey kitten with big blue eyes in Angels backpack. It keeps chasing my tail and its claws break tuffs of my fur off. Angel and Tint have been hiding it for a while. Please get rid of it."

"Okay hang on."

I got up and walked over to Angels backpack. Sure enough inside was a small, furry, grey kitten with big blue eyes. I picked it up and the kitten woke up. It batted at my bangs and I scratched its chin. The kitten purred and I sighed. Knowing Max she would let the girls keep it. I stood up and yelled to Max holding up the kitten. She came up with Angel, and Tint running ahead of her. They both tried to take the kitten away from me but I gave it to Max. Her face softened and the kitten snuggled up in the crook of her arm. Crud, now we were definitely going to keep it.

"Aaaaaaaaaah look Max she likes you. Can we keep her, please?"

"Tint, Angel how long have you been hiding this kitten?"

"Three days."

"If I say yes, you have to promise that there will be no more pets."

"We promise Max."

"Alright she can stay, what's her name?"

Angel and Tint looked at each other and smiled.

"Her name's Cloud."

"Oooookkkaaayy. Cloud it is"

The girls screeched and took Cloud, down to the water and showed everyone. While Max dragged me to the water and threw me in. She's gotten really strong.

I opened my eyes when I got up to see the flock laughing their heads off. I glared at Max and she just laughed even harder.

"I am so going to get you for that."

Max stopped laughing and dove into the water. Another thing she got really good at was swimming. She was currently in the process of teaching the flock how to swim like that as well.

I dove into the water after her and soon after, this turned into a game of water tag. Get this, Cloud actually loved the water. She plashed around in it and chased Total everywhere. She wasn't a half bad swimmer for a cat.

It was about five-o-clock when Max took all the girls, except Tint who stayed to look after Cloud, to go get food in a near by town. The rest of us got out of the water and made camp underneath an old board walk that was collapsing in places out on the water.

Coal had just lit a fire while Iggy was trying to figure out how to use Eels electricity to set off bombs from certain distances when Max and the girls came back.

They landed and ran over to our campsite. Sprinkle doused the fire while everyone else packed everything up in a hurry. That's when I noticed the new scratches and injuries.

"What happened?"

"Erasers. Now hurry up and pack we've got to go now."

No one objected to Max's orders. We all packed and were air born within a minute. After we had flown over Savanna and into Georgia did Max slowe down our flying speed. It was then that I noticed how grave all the girls looked. When ever one of us would try to talk to them, they would just fly ahead of us and talk to Max. What did those erasers do that was so horrible?

**Max POV**

Willow flew up beside me and we exchanged sympathetic looks. I knew what had happened and I wished for it so badly not to have happened.

"Max we need to talk."

I looked at Fang then looked at the ground. If only he had known. He would have been furious. He wouldn't have gotten the flock caught by drunken guys who actually had ties with Itex. He wouldn't have let some other people see our wings and let them watch us fight. He wouldn't have almost let erasers rip apart part of my flock. He also would never have let an eraser get very close to raping me in front of my flock.

"Max what happened?"

"Just your average eraser fight with a few more erasers that normal."

"Right and I love the color pink. What really happened?"

"Hey Max look down. Think that's a good campsite?"

I looked down thankful that Willow butted in when she did. I could never hide anything from Fang, and I still couldn't. Cloud twisted around in my backpack and I forced a smile, just in case Fang was still watching, which he was. Unfortunately he didn't by it. He gave me the we'll-talk-about-this-later look and we headed down.

Around nine everyone was in bed while I had first watch. Cloud was curled up in my lap and Total was curled up by Angel who was on the other side of the camp sleeping.

A strong hand on my shoulder made me jump and Fang sat by me.

"How did you do that? You were just sleeping over there."

"Max I can turn into a shadow remember?"

"Oh right. I got first watch so you can head to bed."

Fang gave me the bird and I sighed. I wasn't getting out of this.

"Fine I'll tell you."

Suddenly all the guys and Tint shot up from where they were sleeping and walked over to us. The noise in turn woke up everyone else. I really didn't want everyone to know about my humongous mistake.

The flock pestered me anyways so I told the story. It was about ten thirty eleven when I finished. Fangs hands were curled into tight balls and his teeth were clench. His face was stoic and his eyes were darker than usual. The part where an eraser had tried to rape me had put him over the edge. The rest of the guys were standing up and walking around or staring out at the play ground. (Yes our camp site was on the edge of a playground.) Tint had a tear rolling down her face. She came over and sat right by me.

I looked down at Cloud and she looked up at me with the saddest eyes, and a knowing glance. The only other time I had seen this face was when Total first talked. And sure enough Cloud talked.

"I'm sooooooo sorry Max. I should have been there to claw their eyes out."

Everyone turned to look at Cloud, even Fang, with the funniest faces.

"What you've never seen a talking cat before. Why do you think Angel and Tint were so keen on keeping me instead of throwing me back out on the street? I'm also an experiment from the school. I saw Tint here taking off flying a few days ago."

"Oh well this makes things different."

"Oh no it doesn't, we're still going to tear you apart."

I froze; there was no mistaking that voice. Erasers.

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	18. Anger Management Much

**Hey everyone I won't be able to update as often anymore because today was my first day of school so I'll have to deal with all my school stuff first. Thanks to all who reviewed and here's another chapter.**

**Max POV**

Erasers. Of all the things I didn't want to deal with right now were erasers. How is it that they always show up at the most unneeded times. All though one look at Fang told me he really needed to get some anger out and kicking eraser butt is a good way to do it.

I stood up and spread my wings out. In the process dropping Cloud while she was hissing at the erasers. Fang had mysteriously disappeared, blending into a shadow, while Tint had turned invisible, and Cammie was blending in with the surroundings. Unfortunately for us, erasers stepped out from behind the trees, and they surrounded us. Joy.

"Max, Max, Max, you weren't supposed to leave. Now we have to destroy one of your flock members, even if you decide to come with us. Oh and guess who we get to kill, you all call him Gazzy."

I just stared at the eraser who had said those words. He was obviously their leader and he looked to be, in eraser years, only a year old. I was so going to make him eat those words. Just then Angel came up and held my hand. She told me a plan inside my head and I had to remind myself that she was growing up.

The rest of my flock and I, minus Angel, Fang, Tint, and Cammie would stall for time. Doing what we did best, talk about some of the stupidest things. While Angel would probe the erasers minds with my help. Fang, Tint, and Cammie would scout around, judge the situation and silently pick off erasers one by one. How Angel had come up with this plan on such sort notice astounded me.

"Hey stupid erasers, how do you think you're going to kill me?"

I looked at Gazzy and he smiled. He knew about the plan. Most likely Angel had already told the flock. So Gazzy nodded at me and I took that as my signal to start talking. And let me tell you once I started talking I was not keen on stopping.

"Yeah I mean, if we were to take off right here and right now you would never catch us. I mean we can fly faster than you guys could ever hope to fly in your life. Or one signal from me and, Coal could send you all up in flames in seconds. We could do so much to you guys in a mere minute that it's not funny."

This seemed to make the erasers step back a little. It was just starting to hit them that, if we got the flock out of the way, some of us could do some real damage.

"But you won't will you. You're all to scared of hurting one of your flock members. Am I right? And we can't forget that your abilities have very pronounced limits."

I stared at the lead eraser, and I had no idea what came over me but I just got so angry that I let go of Angels hand, walked up to the eraser that was talking and I got right up in his face. I wasn't afraid of him because the fear in his eyes was too evident. Some of the closer erasers stood still out of fear while others backed away.

"You listen to me; if you _ever_ try to hurt one hair on my family I will personally hunt you down and kill you. I've had enough of you guys always showing up at the worst possible moments and ruining everything. Now you go back to Eliza Rogan and tell her that the next time we see her, she better be watching over her shoulder."

I put all the venom I had into those words. I put all my pent up rage, anger and fear into those words and I meant them. I was sick and tired of Itex, the school, erasers, Eliza Rogan and Black.

"Oh and give Black a message for me. Tell her that I look forward to the next time we meet."

With that I let loose my emotions. All I did was start walking through the erasers and they either fell dead or ran away. I let some go that heard my conversation but the eraser that had threatened Gazzy's life died first.

_Calm down Max. You learned to control your emotions and to never show them for a reason. Don't loose control again. There will be a time and place for you to let loose but it's not here._

I stopped and put on _my_ emotionless mask. Jeb was right. While I still a prisoner in the Paris facility I had lost control of my emotions once. It had nearly killed me and every scientist who was working at the Paris building that day.

"Max behind you."

I whipped around to see an eraser that had slipped by me. He pulled out a gun, cocked it and aimed it at me. He fired and I was knocked down. I hit my head on the ground then everything went black.

**Eliza Rogan POV**

"What do you mean she scared them? How could she scare them?"

"Please Miss, Rogan; the new hybrids weren't prepared for Max's emotions to break loose. So one of them shot at her, but one of the other avian hybrids knocked Max out of the way. I think it was…"

**Max POV 3 hours later.**

A bunch of images danced in front of my eyes. I was having another brain explosion, without all the pain. I saw Ella and mom the night I had gotten shot in the shoulder. I saw Ari dieing on the battle grounds after the first director had decided to exterminate us. I saw my whole flock laughing and having a good time, not having to worry about erasers, white coats, Eliza Rogan, or Itex. The image was back at the lake that Uno had discovered back in Kansas. Then the image changed. I saw Fang. He looked so like Fang, tall, dark and handsome. He was smiling slightly, and had a glimmer in his eyes that I knew only appeared after we kissed or when one of the flock members did something really stupid that made everyone laugh.

My brain explosion ended and I slowly opened my eyes. The sky was just turning pale pink and purple with the setting sun. I saw a bunch of trees then everything came back to me in a flood of images and voices. I sat up really quick then fell right back down. My head throbbed and I was physically drained of energy.

"Max your awake!"

I looked up to see Eel coming towards me followed by Cammie, Iggy and the rest of my flock. Blade came up behind me and I leaned against him. It killed me to admit it but if Blade wasn't there I would have fallen backwards. Iggy came up beside me and looked at a small gash on the side of my head. Angel and Tint came and sat in my lap while Total and Cloud crawled in between them. The rest of my flock were sitting around me on the ground. They all had very concerned expressions on their faces and some were close to tears.

"Ugh I feel like I was hit by a train. How long was I out?"

"For about three hours."

I grabbed Iggy's hand and pulled it away from my head. It was then that I noticed that some of my flock was missing. Fear raced through my veins and I had a sick feeling knotting up in my stomach.

"Where's Willow, Raven, Ice and Coal. And where's Fang."

"Um Max, there's something you need to know."

I stared at Iggy dreading what I was going to hear. Those stupid erasers had taken some of my family with them. I hadn't killed as many erasers as I thought and now Willow, Raven, Ice, Coal and Fang were gone.

"Iggy what happened?"

My flock all had their heads down and tears now slid unchecked down their faces. I was really getting scared now. What could those erasers do that would put my flock in such a state.

"Um Max, Willow, Raven, Ice and Coal are fine, but you need to see something."

Blade and Iggy helped me up. The rest of my flock stayed where they were. They led me over to a small clearing where Willow, Raven, Ice and Coal were kneeling around something. The knot in my stomach grew ever tighter. I knew what had happened but didn't want to admit it.

Willow, Raven, Ice and Coal stood up, came over and gave me one big hug each. But I could feel the sadness radiating off of their emotions. I looked on the ground and saw…"

**Eliza Rogan POV Continued…**

"So the avian hybrid pushed Max out of the way and sacrificed it self. Interesting, but useful, that hybrid was ruining everything."

"Yes ma'am, but what do you want to do now?"

"Track down Jeb Batchelder and his family. Take them to the Arizona headquarters. That should be a good incentive for Max to do as we say."

"Yes ma'am."

"Did those new eraser charts come in yet?"

"No ma'am, their still being tested."

"Well tell them, I'm sending Black to do a test run. If those erasers are not up to date, I gave Black special permission to take down the flock one by one."

"Yes ma'am."

**Max POV Continued…**

…_I looked on the ground and saw…_

"FANG!"

**Evil cliffe I know. It may be a while before I'm able to post again because I won't have any access to the internet for a while. I'll update ASAP, but I need you all to review. Just click that small square button on the bottom of the screen and type what you think. **


	19. Falling in the Black

**Okay, okay, I'm really sorry it took me so long to update. Once I had internet access again, I ended up getting sick. So without further delay… here's the next chapter. (Oh and please don't kill me if you don't like what happens. Everything's going to turn out in the end. So for all of you, who threatened to kill me with a Spork or a meat cleaver, hang on and be patience.) **

**Max POV**

"_Fang!"_

I rushed over to Fangs side and just stared at him. There were a bunch of rags placed on his stomach just below his ribs. The rags were blood soaked and so was the ground around him. Fangs face was incredibly pale and his breathing was shallow. I knew what Fang had done and he was dieing right in front of me for it. He was the one who had knocked me out of the way, but he had taken the bullet that was meant for me.

I couldn't help it, I cried and I didn't try to stop. I knew it had been wrong to push him away and try to convince myself that I didn't love him, when I did.

I sat there for who knows how long just holding Fangs hand and trying to think of a way to save Fang. He was dieing and I could do nothing for him. I felt the flock come up behind me and each one was trying to day there last goodbyes. It was hard for them because while I was the leader, Fang had always been the protectors, protector. He had always been there and I had thought would always will be, but I was wrong.

Iggy came up beside me and put his hand on my shoulder. I felt all his emotions roll over to me with that one touch and I let him feel my emotions as well. Iggy was already trying to fill in for Fang, though he knew he would never be Fang, and he was trying to be a solid rock that I could count on. I burst into tears again; my flock wasn't thinking about themselves, they were thinking about me and how I would be affected by everything.

"Max what…"

I stood up and unfurled my wings. I couldn't take this anymore. I had to get away from everything. I turned to Iggy and he gave me a look that I probably would never forget.

"I'll be back."

With that I took off and kicked in my super speed, putting up my mental blocks so neither Angel, and if he decided to pipe in, or Jeb could get in my head. I still cried and with each new tear shed I let go a little piece of my emotions.

After about an hour of flying with my super speed I landed in a tree and screamed. Fang was going to die. I sat there and balled my eyes out. Then I remembered a song I had heard once and I started to sing.

"Tonight I'm so alone

This sorrow takes a hold

Don't leave me here so cold

Never want to be so cold

Your touch used to be so kind

Your touch used to give me life

I've waited all this time; I've wasted so much time

Don't leave me alone

Cause I can barely see at all

Don't leave me alone, I'm

Falling in the black

Slipping through the cracks

Falling to the depths can I ever go back

Dreaming of the way it used to be

Can you hear me

Falling in the black

Slipping through the cracks

Falling to the depths can I ever go back

Falling inside the black

Falling inside falling inside the black

You were my source of strength

I've traded everything

That I love for this one thing

Stranded in the offering

Don't leave me here like this

Can't hear me scream from the abyss

And now I wish for you my desire

Don't leave me alone

Cause I can barely see at all

Don't leave me alone, I'm

Falling in the black

Slipping through the cracks

Falling to the depths can I ever go back

Dreaming of the way it used to be

Can you hear me

Falling in the black

Slipping through the cracks

Falling to the depths can I ever go back

Falling inside the black

Falling inside falling inside the black

Black, black, black

Once I was done singing I spread my wings again and flew back to camp. Only when I got there, I fell to my knees and almost screamed again.

The camp had been ransacked and it looked like a fight had just taken place. My flock, including Fang, was no where to be found.

"MAX!"

I looked up to see Angel running full pelt towards me. I stood up just in time for her to run into me and give me a hug. Total and Cloud came running after her and they both came by me as well.

"Max we were so scared that they took you. When you didn't come back after they attacked we thought that you were gone again."

"Angel I'm right here, nothing happened. Now try to calm down and tell me what happened."

Still hugging me, Angel began to tell me that a bunch more erasers had attacked the camp while I was gone. My flock after the whole thing had gone to look for me. I breathed a sigh of relief. My flock was okay.

"Max there's more."

I didn't like that look I saw in Angels eyes. It sent shivers of foreboding down my spine and I already knew that it was going to be bad news.

"They took him Max. The erasers took Fang."

**Review and I'll have another chapter posted ASAP. The song on this chapter doesn't belong to me. I didn't write it, an awesome group called Skillet did. So anyway, review because the more I get the faster I'll update. **


	20. One Way or Another

**Okay thanks to Just a lil revenge, Bubble Blower, Fang-iz-hot, danceswithwings 119, Katie-3llen and Maximum Ride all the way. You guys rock. Oh and thanks to all who are being patient. And no an ice pick will not be needed. But I have a question for everyone who reads this fantic. (I'll tell you at the end of the chapter.) So here's another chapter to keep you'll reading.**

**Jeb POV (He's talking to Max via mind)**

_Max I'm so sorry._

_Whatever Jeb, just get out of my head and stay out._

_You know I can't do that Max._

_Yes you can. Now get out of my head._

_Max I need to tell you something._

_NO! We're coming to visit mom and Ella but you are to stay away from me and the flock. _

_Max it's kind of important._

_Oh well let me see. Fangs gone, my flock is a mess right now, I'm trying to keep my emotions under control, and we only have two and a half months to destroy Itex. So excuse me if I'm not thrilled about something else needing my attention right now._

_I'm sorry about all that stuff, but you really need to hear this. _

_Fine! What's sooooooo important?_

_I'm leaving._

_WHAT! THAT'S what's so important?_

_Not all of it. Your mother and sister were kidnapped by erasers last night and your brother got caught being my spy._

_Oh, are…_

_I'll talk to you later when I know more._

_Jeb wait I…_

I severed the connection with Max and looked at Dr. Rogan holding the knife to Ella's throat.

"It's done."

Eliza Rogan smiled that greedy, evil smile of hers and shoved Ella over to me. Ella stood by me and I hugged her, trying to stop her flowing tears.

"Good. Now maybe Max will show her face. If not, we'll just use Black, but I'd rather not loose such an avid Itex member."

As if by some silent signal, Black walked into the room, followed by Ter Borchet. I knew he hated the flock and that he would be the one to give the final orders to kill them once the time was right.

"Eliza Rogan you're never going to get away with this, Max won't come."

"Oh really? Well I have her brother, sister, mom and dad why wouldn't she come?"

I had to admire my wife's courage; it took guts to stand up to the director of Itex like that. But she was right, Max wouldn't risk the flocks life right now, what I hadn't told Max was the truth. Rogan was smart but not that smart, I mean she said I had to tell Max we were captured by Itex or she'd kill Ella, but I mean come on, loop hole.

"Yeah Rogan, Max isn't that risky."

"Well I also have something that will assure her appearance."

"What?"

"Follow me."

A bunch of erasers pushed me, Ella, my wife and Ari along after Rogan. We walked down three long hallways, through an outside corridor, through another wing of the building, down several flights of stairs, and that ended in front of a large one way window that looked into another large room. The room was bleak and grey with chains for your feet everywhere.

"Look at the far end."

We did so and I took in a breath. Fang sat agents the far wall, in obvious pain. His eyes were clouded but it looked like he could see us. A dark scowl spread a crossed his face and his hands clenched and unclenched. I've got to tell Max.

_Max listen to me._

I could feel her resisting with all her will but she was dodging poop from birds flying over head so she finally gave up.

_What now?_

_Max, half of what I told you earlier was true. Your mom and Ella were kidnapped by Itex but I had already tried to get them back. When I tried, Ari and I were both caught. I told you the other stuff because Dr. Rogan was going to kill Ella. You have to believe me Max, I'm not lying. _

_I believe you. Do you know where you are?_

_No, they transported us once i got caught. I'll get back to you on though but you're never going to guess what I'm looking at right now._

_What?_

_It's…_

I stopped when I felt a small prick in my upper arm. I turned to see an eraser pulling an empty syringe and needle out of my arm. I whipped around to stare Rogan in the face.

"Don't freak out Jeb, what we injected you with only inhibits you from talking to Max in your head. We can't have that now, can we?"

I tried in vain to reach Max but the connection just wasn't there. The erasers, after a signal from Eliza, put us in the same room as Fang. One of our ankles was put in a chain that was attached to the wall. All we could hope for now was a miracle.

**Fang POV**

It has been a week or two since I've been stuck in this cursed building and I've hated every minute of it. First I get put in this stupid cell and am chained to the wall. Second, Jeb, Ella, Dr. Martinez, and Ari are thrown in with me. Third this gun wound still leaves me feeling like slow, sluggish, and I have absolutely no energy. Oh and lets not forget the fact that Max thinks I'm dead and I have no way of telling her other wise.

"Hey Jeb, is your connection with Max still blocked?" I asked this for the hundredth time today.

Jeb closed his eyes and they popped open again. A smile spread a crossed his face making him look just a little weird.

"I can't talk with her yet but, the connections there."

Everyone perked up after that. We waited another hour before Jeb said he could talk with Max.

"Well what are you waiting for? Talk to her, tell her it's a trap."

"If I talk to her right now she'll just get distracted."

"What do you mean?" I was furious at this point. Jeb could talk with Max but he didn't want to. Ugh.

"I mean, she's fighting erasers right now, a lot of erasers and, ouch. Something made her mad and she just sent an eraser to the ground with one kick to his wings."

I smiled, inwardly of course, you never made Max mad without paying the price. Especially since I had a good idea what she was mad about.

Jeb concentrated for about five minutes, trying to talk to Max without distracting her. Suddenly he stared to breathe just a little faster and he had to close his eyes. A couple seconds later he opened them and tears stared to fall down his face. Dr. Martinez went over to him and looked him square in the eyes. She started to cry too.

"Am I missing something? What happened?"

"Yeah what Fang said."

I glared at Ari. I still couldn't stand him even though he was Max's half brother.

Jeb swallowed his pride and croaked out a reply.

"I can't feel Max any more. An unusually powerful eraser snapped her wings together then hit her in the head. She was falling and then… nothing. I think Max is… dead."

I admit it, my body went into shock. Ella started to cry silently and her mom went over to hug her. Ari sat back down against the wall and just stared straight ahead. I on the other hand sat in the darkest corner of the room and to my absolute horror a tear slid down my cheek.

Max couldn't be dead, I would know it somehow. As far as I know, nothing totally different had happened.

But just the same I ended up falling asleep that night with a cold knot in my stomach.

**Eliza Rogan POV**

Max, why haven't you come? Everything depends on you.

A knock at the door started Eliza Rogan.

"Come in."

And wouldn't you know who stepped in. Ter Borchet. Probably one of the most, evil, cunning, ruthless, geniuses' you don't ever want to know.

"What do you want Borchet? I don't have all day."

"Are vou going to de initiation tonight?"

"Of course. Now get out I have work to do. If Max doesn't show up by tonight, we'll use Black."

Ter Borchet stared at me with a cold glair. I stared back at him, and he averted his eyes.

"That's what I thought. Don't EVER challenge me again. Now you can go if you have nothing more to say."

"Actually I do. One ov de erasers may have…"

I listened to Borchet explain how Max wouldn't be showing up anytime soon. My anger was rising and I was about to blow up when he finished.

"Well in that case, we'll use Black. Send her to my office. Tonight we'll introduce Fang to you-know-who. And Borchet bring me the flock. You have my permission to terminate Max. But mark my words if something goes amiss, it will be you who takes the responsibility. Am I clear?"

"Ves ma'am."

With that Ter Borchet walked out of my office. No wonder Max hadn't come, oh well, we'll just make due.

**Max POV**

I was standing on a hill by a lake. The sun was setting and a cool breeze sent my hair everywhere.

"What the…"

"Max."

That voice, so recognizable and yet so far away.

"Max."

"Fang?"

"Hi Max."

I turned around to come face to face with Fang. He was what every girl wants. Tall, dark and extremely handsome. He just stood there, looking at me with those eyes that could make me go weak at the knees.

"FANG!"

I ran to him and he gave me the most welcoming hug ever. Oh how I had missed him so much. We stood there for who knows how long, just hugging each other, never wanting to let go. Until finally my pride got in the way and I stepped back from him.

"Max, my Max. Do you remember the night at Ann's when you asked me, if you ever went bad that I would kill you?"

"Yeah I remember."

"Well, now it's my turn to ask you. You need to save the world Max but to do so you're going to have to do some things that you aren't going to want to do."

"What are you talking about?"

"Save the world Max. I'll be right by your side."

With that, Fang faded away and I was left alone.

"Fang don't go, I need you!"

I sat straight up and banged my head against Iggy's head. I had been dreaming.

"Max your okay!"

Tint jumped into my lap and hugged my. I saw my flock give a visible sigh of relief. Then everything came back to me. The erasers fighting us, that really big one making me so mad, something snapping my wings together and hitting my head. The fall to the ground then black, except for that dream.

"Okay guys let's get going."

Right beside me, Raven gave me a look that made me groan. She knew something had happened. Crud, I thought Fang was the only one who knew me that well.

Three hours later we came upon an island in the middle of a huge lake.

"Guys land, we'll make camp here."

I pointed to the south side of the island and got various nods of yes and someone said finally. We landed and within an hour everyone was fed, warm by a fire and sleeping. I had decided to take the first watch.

Towards the end of my watch, Willow, Raven and Cammie got up and sat by me.

"What are you guys doing? It's not your night for a watch."

"It's not yours either."

They had me there.

"Max what's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Right and someday I'm going to be a pop star."

I smiled. Even though Cammie was the most amazing singer in the world, way better than me, she probably would never sing as a career.

"How about we fly around the lake a few times and then you can decide to tell us."

I wasn't getting out of this, so I woke up Blade and told him to take second watch.

Once in the air I felt a little better. The wind on my face and back sent shivers down my spine. I tightened the strings on my sweatshirt.

By the time we were heading back to the island, I still hadn't told the others about my dream. So Willow got it into her head to start a game of tag in the air. Amazingly I felt a lot better once we were done.

About two minutes away from the island, Blade, Iggy and Eel came barreling towards us. They were bruised and scratched up pretty bad.

"What happened?"

"Max, a lot of erasers came and took everyone but us. There were also a few Flyboys with them."

"WHAT!"

I kicked in my super speed and landed in the clearing we had chosen for our camp site. There was evidence everywhere of a fight. There were also a few pieces of metal indicating that Itex was making Flyboys again. Great.

Willow came up behind me and looked about as shocked as I felt.

"Max we HAVE to get them back."

I walked over to a tree and punched it until there was a dent left in the side. My hand was bloody but I didn't care. Itex now had over half of my flock, my mom, Ella and Jeb. They had almost my whole life.

"We'll get them back, one way or another."

**So what do you think? Review, review, review. I'm asking for at least 85 reviews. I'm sorry it took me so long to post this chapter, but I have a lot going on right now. Anyway the question I wanted to ask you all is, do you want me to continue this story? Because I can end it in a few more chapters. But it's up to you guys. Do I end it or keep going? I've got a good ending and I also have many more ideas if you all want me to keep going. So tell me and review.**


	21. Hello Surprises!

**Thanks to all you who reviewed, sorry it took me so long to post this chapter and we're going to keep going with this fantic. So short intro, here's the next chapter.**

**Eliza Rogan POV**

"Welcome all Itex members! You came here today to see our plan put into action and we're here to show you. As you can see if you look below through the doors at the bottom of the yard, our finest experiments and scientists are getting ready. So while we wait for them I would like all of our leaders and commanders of each section to stand."

Eliza Rogan looked out at the crowd and smiled. About an eighth of the people in the seats around the yard stood. Itex was growing at a phenomenal rate and would soon be big enough to put into action the new and improved By-Half-Plan.

"Thank you all. Now I have just gotten word that we are ready to start. Take your seats and we will begin."

Thunderous applause erupted in the courtyard. Good, now all we have to do is hope these people will take Black as the leader and not Max. Not like they have any choice.

"Stepping out onto the yard you will see who will be leading our missions. She's strong, determined and is willing to die for the cause. I present to you, Black."

Black walked out into the middle of the yard and applause erupted again. Black spread her wings and took to the air, doing complicated stunts, all under the electric shield that would keep the other hybrids from escaping. Once Black was done Eliza Rogan continued.

"Now stepping out will be Blacks second in command, I present to you the human-avian hybrid known as Fang."

**Fang POV**

Erasers shoved me out onto the field next to Black. I knew that I wouldn't be able to escape because of the shock bracelet hidden on my ankle, the eraser's guns that were pointed at me and the shield over the yard, crud, crud and double crud.

I glared at Rogan and mentally decided that she would be the first to go. I also started planning ways to start a riot that would give enough distraction for me to escape and get out of the range of the shock bracelet. Eliza started to speak again.

"Next up is a very special hybrid that, even though can be trouble some, is greatly needed in our super flock."

So that's what they called us, the Super Flock. So uninteresting.

"I give you Sasha, otherwise known as Fang's twin sister."

Okay I admit it, I lost it. They had me surprised and totally taken back.

"MY WHAT?"

A girl was shoved out of a different door into the middle of the yard with Black and I. It was like looking at me in girl form. (Creepy, I know.) This girl was about a half inch shorter than I was, she had long, midnight black hair, emerald green eyes, tan skin and blackish wings that had a tint of grey in them.

Sasha, I think that's what her name was, looked just as surprised as I felt. Her eyes also flashed with hate when Eliza started to speak about us two.

"Sasha here, _like her brother_, can jump very high, see in the dark well, but she can extinguish any light within a ten yard radius of herself."

Okay I know what you're thinking, Fang has another ability. Yes I do, I can see in the dark well. But in my defense I just discovered I could do this like two days ago. I looked at Sasha, and call me crazy; I just knew somehow that we really were twins. Just as I discovered this I saw the same thing in her eyes. She wasn't very good at hiding her emotions.

"So you're my twin brother."

"I guess so; I have this feeling that it's true so yeah."

"Me too."

We just looked at each other and a strange urge to protect her ran through me. It wasn't like when I was with Max, it was a lot weaker, but it was still there. But before everything, I had to know something first.

"Do you work for Itex?"

"NO! I hate them with all my being. I've been locked up in cages most of my life and all the experiments they've done on me. I could so just ripe their throats out."

"Okay good enough for me."

Good, now that, that was over I could concentrate on getting Black out of the way. But again Rogan started to introduce the other hybrids that would become part of the "super flock."

"Next we have quadruplets, two girls and two boys. The first, Sprinkle, can control water and hold her breath up to ten minutes at a time. The second, Coal, can control fire and can create small amounts at a time that he can multiply. Third, Red, can control rocks, dirt, soil, anything that has to do with the ground, but the best controlled are rocks. Last we have Star, who can control the air and even if she didn't have wings would be able to fly.

Erasers shoved the four out and my eyes widened. How did Itex get a hold of part of the flock? Star spotted me and all of a sudden I was bombarded with four fourteen year olds hugging me. I hugged them all back.

"How did you guys get here? Where's everyone else and is everyone okay?"

They all started to answer at once but Rogan, _again_, interrupted us.

"Nest we have another set of twins. First, Ice, can do what his name says, control Ice and freeze things. His sister, Charm, can make mirages of things she's seen before and can trap people in illusions."

Ice and Charm stepped out and gave me a hug each. We knew we wouldn't be able to talk till later so we waited for Eliza to continue.

"Sky, a thirteen year old hybrid is truly unique. She can sense people within a hundred mile radius of herself and the only way to block this is if you know how to block your mind."

Sky was brought out and man was she mad. She punched one of the erasers holding her in the arm so hard I thought I heard a crack. Black had to go get her and drag her to stand beside us, where I was ordered to talk some sense into her. Guess what my "sense" was, the remnants of a plan to escape. Muahahahah.

"These next three have no blood relationship but have simple, yet effective abilities. Nudge, can see things that happened a short time ago through technology. She is also a whiz on hacking and computers and mechanics. Trent, can walk through walls and Gazzy," after Eliza said Gazzy's name she paused and tried to stifle the anger I saw rising to her face. "Can mimic voices and make bombs of all sizes."

Nudge, Trent, and Gazzy walked out onto the courtyard and gave the audience dirty looks. Good job guys!

"These next hybrids are the last three members of our super flock. There's Uno, who can make up to four, solid, individual copies of himself that are totally under his control. Tint, who can turn invisible and Angel who can do multiple things. She can breathe under water, read minds and some what control people if their minds aren't blocked."

Uno walked out on the field and stood next to me, looking as dark as ever thanks to his emotionless mask.(Guess who taught him that?) On the other hand Angel and Tint gave me huge hugs. Eliza Rogan continued to talk about our training and everything but one sentence stuck out in my mind. She said that there may be more hybrids joining the group that were currently being tested. Or in other words, the erasers hadn't caught them yet.

_Angel can you hear me?_

_Yup. Oh my gosh Fang I'm sooooooo glad you're not dead. Max will be so happy to see you._

_Max isn't dead then?_

_No. Who gave you that idea? We all thought that you were dead._

_Well I'm not, so I have a plan and once we get some time I'll tell you all. Okay?_

_Okay Fang._

"That concludes the view of our super flock. We will meet again next week to put other things in order."

If all of these Itex nut cases really thought that I would do one little thing for them, they had another thing coming.

**Max POV**

"Give me my stupid money!"

I banged on the ATM for about the hundredth time and took my card that the machine had so graciously decided to give back. I looked at the screen on the ATM. It said that my account didn't have the amount of money that I wanted available. Ugh. I guess Jeb hadn't had a chance to fill up the account before he was captured.

"Can this day get any worse?"

I tried the card again.

"Thanks Max, you've just doomed us to have a visit from the Director herself."

I gave Eel the bird, and he backed off a little. As much as I loved the kid, he could be so pessimistic sometimes. Although with our luck he was probably right. Great I just cursed us.

After another failed attempt I gave up on trying to get money and walked down a side alley that we had flown over to get into the smallish town.

"Any one have any idea where we're going to get food without money?"

"We could catch and eat some rabbits or something." Iggy looked at me as if to say, please say no to my suggestion.

"Or we could eat the left over food at camp and try to save what little money we have."

Now I sometimes wonder what we would do without Willow.

"Sounds good, leftovers tonight then we'll scour this section of Arizona tomorrow."

Yes, we had finally made it to Arizona. Actually we made it about a week and a half ago. We spent the rest of the time trying to locate Itex. We finally had it narrowed down to a medium sized region of Arizona that had only a few towns and was mostly covered in desert.

We all flew to our campsite, which was about a thirty minute flight out of the city we just came from and was surrounded by trees. Yes again, trees, we were by a pretty big lake that flooded at least once a year whenever it rained in Arizona.

After a leftover supper and a quick swim to cool us off, we curled up on the ground and fell asleep by a fire. Did you know that it actually gets kind of cold during the night in the desert? Anyway, Cammie had offered to take the first watch so once everyone else was asleep I finally let sleep take me over.

I was standing in a courtyard of some sort with bleachers on the outside of a wall that surrounded the courtyard. There was a makeshift stage and podium at the head of the yard and a screen behind the stage.

"Max."

I turned around to see Fang standing beside, ugh, Jeb. Fang came up to me and we kissed. Oh how I missed him kissing me. Next Jeb came up beside me and looked straight at me with sympathetic eyes.

"Max, you need to hurry and find Itex's headquarters. We're running out of time."

"How do you know this? If I can see you in my dream, doesn't that mean your dead?"

Jeb threw back his head and laughed. His laugh didn't grind at my nerves like I thought it would, but rather, it sounded heartfelt and genuinely dadish.

"Max we're not dead, although if you don't hurry up we might be soon. The only way I'm able to contact you, is in your sleep. Fang was the only one who could get through to you for a while, but now I can too."

I looked at Fang with tears in my eyes. He wasn't dead, Fang wasn't dead.

"No Max, I'm very much alive and guess who else is here with us."

Suddenly I could see my flock. They were all standing like Fang but each one came up and I hugged them like I had lost my kids. Well if you look at it through my point of view, I did. But Fang wasn't done showing me the last surprise, I could tell.

All of a sudden, Ella, Ari and mom appeared. I gave each of them a hug. Then I looked out of the corner of my eye and I saw another girl I didn't recognize. She looked a lot like Fang. Fang had noticed that I was looking at the girl he came and brought the girl over.

The girl looked extremely nervous but I also saw a hint of admiration in her eyes. Somehow all my suspicion about her melted away.

"Sasha meet Max, Max meet my twin sister Sasha."

I bolted awake to Blade putting his finger to his lips. I nodded and saw everyone but Raven was awake. I walked over to where Cammie was surveying the camp. By the moons position, it would have been during second watch, which Iggy had decided to take after winning a game of rock, paper, scissors with me.

"What's going on?"

"Iggy said he hears laughing and a buzzing noise coming our way. He woke up Blade and Blade found some jumbled rocks we could hide in."

I got a little mad at Iggy. They all knew that if something happened during their watch to wake me up first, not second to last.

Blade led us all to the jumble of rocks where we hid. Only a minute or so later two Flyboys and ten erasers walked by. They gave no signal that they had noticed us or our camp. I got one of my split second ideas and I told the others that we were going to follow them.

So we spent half the night following, on foot may I add, the erasers and flyboys. When the sun was just coming up we stopped at a clearing and we all froze.

"Uh guys... I think we just found Itex's headquarters."

**Review and tell me what you think. I'll have another chapter posted as soon as possible. I'm asking for 93 reviews. **


	22. Past, Present, Hold

**Okay you all are slipping on your reviews. So after each chappie you need to click that little button at the bottom of the screen and tell me what you think. Thanks to those who did review though. So this next chapter is for you all.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the original flock members, but I do own the new characters. I also don't own any of the songs on the fantic. (I decided to put in a disclaimer just because I hadn't put one in, in a while.)**

**Fang POV**

"I still can't believe that I saw THE Maximum Ride, in that dream. Where I was held captive all the other hybrids and I would talk about Max and her flock. Oh my gosh Fang I can't believe you two are in love."

"I am not in love with Max! We're just really good friends."

Everyone just nodded their heads sarcastically. They didn't believe me. Well I didn't believe myself. Ever since Max had come back she had pushed me away.

It had been another week since I had met my twin sister. We had actually gotten to know each other, and the flock seemed to like her. I had no idea how Max would like her but there was just something about Sasha that was likable. I mean, Max would like her at least for all the praise Sasha gave her, Sasha made Max sound like Wonder Woman.

"Someone's coming!" Sky looked up and concentrated, looking at the door as if she could see through it.

"It's a few erasers with… Oh my gosh no!" Angel stood up beside Sky.

"The erasers have Blade, Cammie, Raven, Eel, and Willow."

Just as I stood up to look out the door, five erasers came in dragging, literally dragging, Blade, Cammie, Raven, Eel, and Willow. The erasers chained them to the wall then left, but only after Sprinkle, Coal, Red, and Star gave each one at least three new bruises.

"Fang!"

I heard my name being echoed and I sat back down.

"Welcome to Rogan's idea of a mid-evil dungeon." This got everyone laughing. How we could laugh in our current position, I had no idea, but we did.

Something squirmed around in the small bag Willow had on her back. Willow unzipped the bag and guess who popped out?

"Total!" Angel screeched.

"Cloud!" Exclaimed Tint.

So yeah after that, we all got caught up on stuff and I introduced Sasha to "the new prisoners," and guys do you know how annoying girls the same age can be when they talk about girl stuff and you have no idea as to what they're saying. Ugh, this went on for a long time. Finally Trent interrupted. Unfortunately he interrupted with the one question that seemed to be what everyone was avoiding.

"Where's Max and Iggy?"

We all went silent. All of a sudden I realized something wasn't right. Something was missing, some part of me just felt alone. That familiar knot in my stomach appeared. Oh no, not possible Fang, no! Please don't say it.

"Uh um, Max and Iggy... are gone. For real this time. The stupid erasers said that Max wasn't needed any more so they shot her. Iggy got hit but he could have survived. We were caught after Iggy fell."

Total stared to whimper and Cloud was no longer exploring the room, her curiosity seemed to disappear. Willow, Cammie, and Eel just stared into space. Raven was crying, it was not a secret that she and Iggy were 'together', while Blade was looking at me.

"I'm sorry Fang I tried to push her out of the way but three erasers tacked me from behind."

I knew Blade felt horrible, because I felt even worse. Angel stood up and yelled that they were lying while Jeb went white because he couldn't contact Max. Everyone started to voice their objections. But I knew, something _was _different.

"STOP!"

Everyone stopped talking and looked at me. A tear escaped my eye and I did nothing to hide it.

"Max is gone."

That was the hardest thing for me to say, well to say it and know it's true.

It was at this time that the door swung open and erasers poured in. They were laughing and making fun of Max. The looks on the flock's faces said that once I gave the signal they were ready to make the erasers jobs a bit difficult.

The erasers took off our shock bracelets and started to unlock our chains. The eraser that took off Charms bracelet I actually felt sorry for because once it was off the eraser ran out of the room screaming ghosts. Charm really could be creative with her illusions. After that the eraser that held Ella put a knife to her throat and that ended us trying to escape that way. Except for the eraser that unlocked Dr. Martinez, she punched the eraser so hard he had an instant black eye and the eraser that unlocked me, they didn't fair so well. He had the nerve to make fun of Max in front of me so I punched him in the gut. Let's just say he won't be fighting for a while.

We were pushed out of the room and into that same stupid courtyard. Even Total and Cloud were brought along with us. Everyone except for Dr. Martinez, Ella, Jeb, Ari, Blade, Cammie, Raven, Eel and Willow, was pushed onto the courtyard alongside Black. I mentally decided that I was not leaving here without giving Black a few new bruises.

Up in the stands there were about the same amount of people, Eliza Rogan stood on her podium, but there were a lot of erasers, some Flyboys that looked just a bit different and some other hybrids that looked just like regular kids. The only reason you knew they were hybrids because, they were showing off their talents. One girl had spots all along her arms, Max said she had seen hybrids like this, and another boy was shooting webs from his hands, just like Spiderman. There were many other ones, but one boy stood out amongst the others. He was looking at Black with admiration and when he looked at me I saw cold hate.

"Welcome back everyone to the beginning of the By-Half-Plan. As I said last week there would be new members to the super flock. We also have other hybrids we will show that are going to play a key role in the plan."

The crowd erupted into applause. Black came and stood by me, I pushed her away and that same boy gave me an ice cold stare, I glared back at him and he shrank away like a lost puppy.

"Our new members of the super flock are, Blade who can collect balls of energy into his hands. Willow, who can create force fields strong enough to reflect a high powered gun's bullets, Raven, who can talk to animals, Cammie, who can blend into almost any surrounding and Eel who can create high amounts of electricity."

Erasers pushed them out onto the courtyard next to us. Rogan talked some more while Dr. Martinez, Ella, Ari, and Jeb were led to stand by us as well. The erasers and flyboys on the sidelines moved in a little.

"Now to ensure our super flock is perfect, there are a few tests that they must pass first. The tests are either pass or die. Black has already proved herself so she will not be tested but everyone else will. The other people down there are all spies who are there so they can be destroyed."

Ella stepped behind her mom, while Ari, who was in his seven year old form, took Jeb's hand. Ari, because of Jeb taking out his expiration date, would slowly be transformed back into a full human. So he was already having a hard time keeping his eraser form.

Eliza began to speak again while there was a gleam of satisfaction in her, and that one boy's, eyes.

"People of Itex, we have all heard of Maximum Ride. She is now dead for a fact. So let the testing begin."

Good, Rogan had swallowed the bait. But we had to make it seem like Max really was dead and that this all wasn't a hoax.

"What do you mean, how do you know Max is dead?" I yelled up to Rogan who just smiled in return.

"Fang, we placed microphones and cameras in that cell of yours. We heard everything you said."

_Fang look to your right. Is that the signal?_

_Yup Angel it is, tell everyone to get ready to duck._

_Finally._

I felt Angel's mind leave mine. Our trap had worked and now Itex was about to get a big surprise.

"Now the first…"

Rogan didn't finish because a second later,

**BOOM!**

Okay if I had ever said that I hated Iggy's bomb making, I take it back. The look on Rogan's face as the bomb went off was priceless. Iggy had placed the bomb on the outside wall. The bomb hadn't taken out the wall but it had taken out the electric field that kept us avian hybrids from flying out. Unfortunately for us, the crowd wasn't as surprised as they should have been and Eliza was still alive. Nothing had touched the stand where she stood.

Willow put down the shield she had put up to keep the flying pieces of stone away from us. Once she did someone else joined us, Iggy.

Eliza regained her composure and saw Iggy. I saw the anger in her face and Ice, Gazzy and Nudge burst out laughing.

"Well I think we can skip to the hand-to-hand combat as I see there is another hybrid in the yard. Iggy is his name and he will have to be terminated."

"Right like you could ever get within an arms length of me. Oh and by the way that bomb took out your office."

Rogan wasn't as surprised as she should have been. She needed to be surprised when Max showed up. Speaking of which, I leaned over and whispered into Iggy's ear.

"Where's Max?"

"Change of plan, she'll be here in a minute."

"Okay and by the way…"

"I know about your sister Fang, you two look a lot alike."

Iggy turned away from me and hugged Raven. Eliza wasn't happy; I also decided to add a few bruises to her face as well.

"Enough of this nonsense let the tests begin. Fang will fight five erasers to start us off."

Black shoved me forward and everyone else was dragged back. I know what you're thinking; Fang can take down five erasers easy, right. The only problem is these erasers weren't your average ordinary erasers. These erasers were huge, overly powerful, blood thirsty, crazy erasers, these erasers I could have a problem with.

"This is a fight to the death, no interference. Begin."

I really began to hate Eliza even more than I already did. The five erasers charged me at once, I flipped over one, kicking two others in the head, and kicking another at the base of his spine. I landed and kicked the legs out from one of the erasers who ended up falling on the last one. The erasers got back up again and charged. I jumped over one and fell into the shadow of the podium; I came back up again right behind the erasers.

Unfortunately one got in a lucky punch and the next thing I knew two erasers were on top of me. It was hard to breath and I saw the last three running to jump on me as well. Suddenly the weight was lifted off of me and I heard numerous gasps, one being from Eliza over the PA system.

I stood up and smiled. The flock came running up, while the erasers, hybrids and flyboys backed away. A very angry Max stood up from punching an eraser who no longer moved. Max's eyes flashed at Eliza and Black who had moved to stand by that boy.

"Who said you could start without me?"

My Max.

**Max POV**

"Who said you could start without me?"

Eliza looked at me with pure hate. Obviously she had fallen for the Max is dead plan.

"But how Max, you're supposed to be dead." Do I call 'em or what.

"How, well let's see. Fang knew about the cameras and mics so,"

Fang cut in.

"Max and the flock whom you hadn't captured spent a week putting together a plan."

Raven cut in. I had no idea why we were telling Eliza this but the looks on everyone's faces was worth it.

"You capturing us was all part of the plan, so was Max pretending to die. We knew we had to act like Max was dead but we also had to tell the plan without you hearing it."

Angel cut in. Goodness it felt so good to see everyone again, especially Fang.

"So I mind spoke the plan to everyone."

I decided it was time to wrap this up. Cloud and Total sat at my feet and the looks they gave me told me that I was right.

"So as you can see, everyone here was outsmarted by twenty two members of the flock."

Sasha's face lit up. I had just unofficially said that we had a new member to the flock. I whipped out my wings and everyone else did the same. Before we made our exit, I had to be sure of one thing.

_Jeb._

_What?_

_Are you out?_

_Yep, we're about a mile away and driving further away each second, by the way your mother is a maniac driver._

There were a few advantages to having Jeb around. They had slipped away when Iggy set off the bomb.

"Well everyone it hasn't been nice knowing you. Good-bye."

I knew we had to save the world still but without the flock, their plan would be put on hold. We started to fly away when I heard someone yell my name. I recognized the voice. I stopped and turned around.

"Omega I can't say I'm happy to see you."

**Review, review, review. Tell me what you think and I'll have another chappie posted soon. Just click that button and add one more review.**


	23. I Promise

**Hey everyone, sorry it took me so long to update but I have school, a bunch of other stuff and I started a new story. It's called 2****nd**** Chance, so if you have the time look it up and read. Here's another chapter.**

**Max POV**

"_Omega I can't say I'm happy to see you."_

I was looking down at Omega and giving him a death stare. I thought I had finished him off long ago. I guess not, so much for having this escape go well.

"Don't forget me Max."

Of course, Black, she hadn't died either. Black was standing right beside Omega with, _admiration,_ in her eyes. I felt Fang fly to my right side while Willow was on my left. The rest of the flock were a little ways behind us. The crowd down in the courtyard seats were waiting to see what would happen next. They were eager to see a fight; I could fell it, sick psychos. Dr. Rogan was standing at her podium, all composed and important like.

Suddenly she started to laugh. Her laugh sent chills down my back like someone was scraping their nails a crossed a chalk board. Her laugh put my nerves on edge and when your mortal enemy laughs in your face, something's wrong.

"You still don't get it, do you Max. I was prepared for something like this to happen. Right now we have a bunch of erasers that were pulled off of guard duty, running around and getting ready to take you down. We also have Omega and Black here ready to destroy you. We don't need you Max, you had your chance and you blew it. So now it's time for you to die."

I tensed, we probably weren't getting away without a fight, and a fight is something that I wanted to avoid right now. So I did the only thing I could think of. I called Jeb.

_Hey Jeb._

_Hey yourself Max. Where are you?_

_Still at Itex. _

_Oh, well get out of there ASAP. Omega and Black are still alive and they both have been upgraded. Omega had been de-robofied and given wings, and Black had some upgrades. They make a devastating team._

_Um I knew about Omega and Black thanks. Any knew surprises?_

_Nope._

_Anyway we could escape without a fight?_

_Nope. Hurry up though; your mother's trying to kill me for leaving you all there._

I felt Jeb's presence leave and I suddenly had an idea. If the flock would do it, was another matter though.I turned to Willow.

"Willow, you and Fang take the flock and head to our old home. You remember the one that had all the room and was in the mountains."

"Yeah I remember Max but I'm not going."

"Please Willow, I promise I'll only be a few hours behind you and with any luck I'll catch up to you."

Willow sighed. She headed back to the flock and started to tell them the plan. I felt their resilience but they were ready to go. I then looked down at the courtyard and noticed a bunch of erasers and a few flyboys were waiting. Dr. Rogan was waiting for us to make the first move. Well we would and what a first move it would be. I was about ready to tell the flock to go when I noticed Fang was right beside me, silent as ever.

"Fang please go, I promise I'll be only an hour or two behind you guys."

"No."

"Please Fang go. I can take care of Omega, Black and all the erasers. I'm just going to give Dr. Rogan a message then I'll loose everyone with my super speed."

"Absolutely not Max, I'm staying."

I sighed; I wasn't going to have Fang here. He obviously didn't want to give in but I also had a mean stubborn streak.

"Fang," I looked Fang in the eye and let him feel my emotions. He looked at me with disbelief and a touch of anger. (I let him feel my stubbornness) "I love you and I always have. I just don't think we can be together until this thing with Itex is over. Now I promise I'll be back."

Reluctantly Fang flew back with the rest of the flock. I gave them the signal to go. My flock flew away as fast as they could. Everyone on the ground noticed and I felt their anger. I turned to face them all. I was ready to give Rogan her little message.

"You will never win so long as I'm alive."

**Sorry this chappie was kind of short but that's the way it is. So review and type up something about this chappie. **


	24. Through Her Eyes

**Hey we hit 100 reviews good job guys wahhhooooooo. Anyway, sorry it took me so long to review; I now have another story to update as well.**

**Fang POV**

We were about half way to our old house when I saw a small black dot heading towards us, turns out it was Max flying to us at super speed. She had kept her promise and hadn't tried to be the hero who got herself killed.

Once Max caught up to us we set out at a faster pace in case the erasers had followed her. I flew back to Max and stayed about five feet above her. About an hour later, we stopped at an abandoned barn and ate lunch we had bought from a small town.

"Hey Max what happened back there after we left?"

Why do I think something happened? Well Max had been extremely quiet for the past hour and her eyes had panic in them. Just F.Y.I that's how I always know what Max is feeling; her eyes give away how she feels. That was the hardest part for me to keep stoic, was my eyes and Max hasn't quite mastered it yet.

"Nothing happened. I gave Rogan her message and took off. Simple."

"Then why do you have a new array of bruises and scratches all over you?"

"I fought with a couple of erasers who thought they could take me, their mistake."

I left it at the, but before we left the barn I gave Max one of those We'll-talk-about-this-later look. She groaned then took off.

Later that night we were a mere five hour flight to our old house. We had found a state park and were currently camped by a rest area. Everyone was sleeping, so very quietly I snuck over to Max. But when I got to the tree where she was supposed to be, she wasn't there.

"What are you doing up Fang. I won rock paper scissors so I have first watch."

I looked up into a tree that was a little to my right and up into the higher branches. Max was sitting there still as a statue. Her eyes were ablaze and her muscles were tense.

"It's past first watch. I have second watch."

"Well I'm not really tired so I'll wake you up for third."

"No."

I flew up to a branch parallel to Max's. She was looking at something a little ways away from the campsite.

"Is that Willow and Eel kissing?"

"Yup and over to your left is Blade and Cammie. North of you is Raven and Iggy. None of them know that I can see them making out and they don't know that there are other people from the flock doing the same thing."

Okay I admit it, I laughed. If you thought about it, it was actually funny. Max even started to laugh and I felt the tension in her body drain away. Finally I looked her straight in the eye.

"Max do you love me?"

Max stopped. I looked into her eyes and all I saw was confusion.

"Fang I love you, but I don't think we should be a couple until this thing with Itex is over."

"I can live with that so long as I can still do this…"

I leaned over and kissed Max. Gosh it felt so good to kiss her again. When we pulled apart she smiled.

"We can definitely keep doing that."

Something in Max's eyes told me something was still wrong.

"What happened today? You haven't been acting right since you caught up with us."

Max sighed. She looked around then she looked at the camp where thirteen kids still slept soundly.

"I'll tell you in the morning, but you're not going to like it."

"Fine. Hey I still have second watch, go get some sleep."

So you know what Max did, she moved over a few branches and fell asleep on a large branch. She just wouldn't let me win anything.

**Hey I hope you liked this chapter and I promise to update soon but you guys have been getting a little lazy with your reviews. Thanks to everyone who did review but now you all have to click that little purple button at the bottom of the screen and REVIEW.**


	25. Step To Me

**Okay sorry it took me a little longer to update. I've got so much going on right now it's really hard to take time to sit down at the computer. Anyway here's another chappie.**

**Max POV**

My eyes flew open and I was immediately blinded by light. I was strapped to a table with white coats looking at me, studying me. I was back at Itex, how? I have no idea. The white coats walked out of the room and my mind went into overdrive. I did everything I could to get out of the straps but I couldn't. My flock was no where to be seen and somehow I got the impression that something bad had happened to them.

Then Omega and Black walked into the room followed by… erasers, flyboys and the new species called the eliminators or otherwise known as the X's. I laughed to myself, the eliminators was the lamest name these wack job scientists could have named their new creations. Only the x's were nothing to laugh about.

"Nice to see you again Max, my you don't look a thing like Black here, odd. Anyway I came to say my last farewells. Good-bye Max."

Everyone walked out of the room except for a few x's. I was desperately trying to free myself but the restraints just wouldn't give. I saw a needle then felt the slight prickle in my upper arm. I recognized the color of the fluid in the syringe; they were _putting me to sleep._

I thought of my flock and Fang. He would take over and the flock would save the world without me.

I shot up on the tree branch and was breathing really hard. I was just having another one of those stupid dreams. Fang was watching me, I nodded toward the camp. The sun was up and so was everyone else when we landed in the camp. Nobody was really making a fuss over anything so I decided to try and skip the explaining. But to no avail. Just as we were about to take off Fang just had to go and remind everyone of my promise, ugh.

"Max what happened?"

"I fought a few erasers and flyboys, dueled with Omega and Black and found out how Itex is going to make our lives even more miserable. Okay let's go."

Just to let you know, when you have 21 flock members staring at you, it's so hilarious. Then to top it off almost everyone said "what" at the same time. It was so hilarious.

"Alright, apparently Itex now has a new hybrid. I don't know what it's a cross between but their called the eliminators or the X's."

Gazzy and Ice broke out laughing. I totally agreed with them, the scientists were getting very uncreative. Sasha broke away from the rest of us and walked right up to me.

"Max I wouldn't mess around with those new hybrids. I was at the facility that first made them." Sasha now turned around to look at everyone. "The X's are a hybrid yes, but they have many improvements. They have immense strength, and are almost robotic. Once they are given a mission they see it through to the end or die trying. They look just like regular people, and have no expiration date. There only downfall is that they are extremely hard to 'make'. It could take years for only one X to finally be ready to fight."

I sighed. No way was I going to be taken down by a bunch of looney experiments that were once like Omega, strong and yet, not much going on in the head.

"So what you're saying they're still going to be making erasers and flyboys?"

"Unfortunately for them, yes."

So after that we headed off. I still hadn't told the whole truth. I had said what was bugging me but not what had actually happened. Truth was I had lost it. I was getting beat pretty bad then something inside of me just snapped. I lost control of my emotions and I ended up killing a lot of those X hybrids. I couldn't tell anyone about that though and I had my mind blocked so no one could read it.

We were about an hour away from our new home when a song popped into my head. I remembered hearing it before and I had fallen in love with the song. It was called Step to Me by a band called Thousand Foot Krutch.

**I've been as far as you can go**

**I've learned a lot and now I know**

**You're never going to get me on the floor again**

**I'm prepared to take you to the end**

**Never gonna play your games again**

**Bring your whole team and all your friends**

**But I hope you're listenin'**

**Haunt me if you want me**

**But I'll warn you **

**If you ever step to me**

**I sometimes wish that I could fly**

**Hold me tight in your arms tonight**

**Sick of livin' inside a lie, alright**

**I can't count the times I've tried**

**Stand alone just to lift you high**

**You're my answer to the question why**

**I'm sick of letting you control**

**The places that I go**

**I'm never giving into you again**

**Take, take another look at me**

**And tell me what you see **

**All of these kats tryin' to get under my skin**

**But they can't step over me **

**You try to control me**

**But ya can't hold me**

**You don't own me**

**If you ever step to me**

**I sometimes wish that I could fly**

**Hold me tight in your arms tonight**

**Sick of livin' inside a lie, alright**

**I can't count the times I've tried**

**Stand alone just to lift you high**

**You're my answer to the question why**

**I know it's not me**

**Take a look inside me**

**I'm sick of these ways**

**So sick of these games**

**Couldn't see till I multiplied you**

**Call me a freak**

**But I don't hear the words you speak**

**I'm takin' control**

**Just lettin' you know**

**That I won't get sucked in by you**

**I sometimes wish that I could fly**

**Hold me tight in you're arms tonight**

**Sick of livin' inside a lie, alright**

**I can't count the times I've tried**

**Stand alone just to lift you high**

**You're my answer to the question why, why.**

Yeah I still remembered the song. The part about wishing I could fly, well I wished I could fly out of the nightmare my life had become. Anyway I ended up falling back a ways and getting higher than the flock during my little tirade. So I decided to take my time for a change.

_Max don't go back to your house yet!_

_Uh hi to you to Jeb. What is wrong now, you never seem to pop into my head with good news._

_Like I said, don't go back to your house. There are erasers swarming all over the property waiting for you guys._

_Uh Jeb slight problem, I'm behind the flock, far enough that I wouldn't be surprised if they were already there. And I don't hear or see anything wrong. _

Just then I heard a loud shrill scream. It sounded like Charm.

_Told ya._

_Oh get a life Jeb._

**So you all know how I like my reviews. Sorry about the story kind of at a weird spot right now but I promise it'll get better. Review.**


	26. Meet the X's

**Okay everyone I am sooooo sorry it took me so long to update. I've got a lot going on so during Christmas break I will update at least once. So yeah this chapter's a little longer for everyone enjoy.**

**Max POV**

_Jet a life Jeb._

I kicked in my super speed and almost ran into three erasers. I was able to stop in time and fly up just as they clashed heads.

"That was the oldest trick in the book, pay attention would ya? On second thought, keep going about like you are, no need to change anything."

One eraser lunged at me with his claws out, and yeah he had long CLAWS, like a big cat times two. I dived below him and flew away. Someone screamed my name and it sounded like Star, from this point she sounded like she was by the lake. Again I kicked in my speed and high tailed it to the lake. Once I landed four Flyboys were immediately on me. Following the example of Fang, Gazzy, and Iggy, I jumped into the lake, the Flyboys followed. I was out of the water and into the air when a little explosion went off in the water and one right after at the top of the hill.

"Iggy." I muttered to myself. He would probably be the one responsible for the bomb on top of the hill but in the lake were the Flyboys not mixing to well with water. That's a good thing about Flyboys there not all too bright.

Using the hill as a ramp, I flew low and fast, coming out on the north side of the cabin. It looked almost like it had before. Except for the broken window from the bomb, the gouged out wall pieces and it desperately needed a new paint job. The odd thing was, no one was in the yard and I knew this was where the bomb went off. I ran around to the side and saw Eel and Raven, each fighting two erasers. They had the fight under control though.

"Where's everyone?" I yelled

"Oh hi Max, these are the last of the erasers. Fang took the rest of the flock ahead." Raven said while giving the eraser a swift kick in the head. He went down like a ton of bricks. Something didn't sit right, Fang would never leave Eel and Raven here, he would stay and leave Willow in charge.

"Okay where did they go?"

Raven paused for a second. Warning signs were going off inside my head like crazy. Why, I had no idea.

"North, Fang said to catch up to them at the next town."

Now I really was worried. The nearest town north was a good half day to a day's flight away; it was also really small and was hard to blend in. The town we always went to was west of here. Besides, there were a bunch of caves east of us that only the flock knew about. I had made it a rule that if we got split up we would meet at the caves. The two people I was looking at weren't Eel and Raven. So who were they? Was I in one of Charms mirages?

"Hey Raven have you ever wanted to be a singer?"

"No I sing horribly, why?"

Now I was sure that wasn't Raven. Even though she had an awful singing voice, she still wished she could sing professionally.

"Eel did you ever kiss Willow before we met you guys?"

"No, why all the stupid questions?"

That wasn't true either. Willow told me secretly once that she had kissed Eel about a month before she met us. These were definitely not Eel and Raven.

"Who are you two? You're not Eel and Raven."

The next thing that happened kind of creeped me out, it looked like everything was melting. Then I found myself staring straight at an X still down by the lake, crap.

Oh just F.Y.I. something else I didn't mention to the flock was that some X's have abilities just like us, and the one I was looking at did something like Charm. I could now hear fighting going on at the top of the hill. I even saw Uno, or one of his clones.

The X that was facing me was younger. When X's are in full morph mode they have, long pointed teeth, sharp, slightly curved claws and eyes with horizontal pupils and a reddish glow, like a cat. The fur that sprouted was sleek and brown with one or two white stripes going down its back. They have short angled muzzles and have powerful muscles. They are agile and quick and fiercer than erasers. So far, they only have two downfalls, they take a while to mature and they don't have wings, yet.

"So you're the Maximum Ride I keep hearing about. How pathetic, you were caught in my mirage so easily."

I was looking for a good spot to take off from. I was in no mood to fight this X when my flock needed me. The X in front of me started to morph, it was worse than watching erasers morph, and I seized my chance.

I ran about tree feet and flapped my wings, hard. A flicker of movement caught my eye that was followed by a bunch of crashing noises. A new X lay at the bottom of the hill, unconscious or dead. Blade and Cammie stood at the top of the hill panting hard with sweat running down their necks. I joined the two at the edge and quickly kicked an eraser down the hill that was stupid enough to lunge for me. He fell, effectively hitting the X that trapped me in the mirage, they landed on the sandy beach and slowly started to move.

"Welcome to our little skirmish."

I gave Blade a hard stare then surveyed the scene. Fang and Sasha were taking on three erasers and an X, Blade and Cammie went to help. Uno and Tint were fighting a small X that looked like this was its first time out. Angel was on the porch, unconscious, with Total, Cloud, Gazzy and Trent keeping erasers away from her. Nudge, Sky, Ice and Charm were fighting six erasers in the air, while Star, Red, Sprinkle, and Coal were working together to take down two X's. Raven was lying on the ground with Iggy, Eel and a bunch of forest animals around her. Willow was fighting five erasers by herself and loosing badly.

I ran over to her and touched one eraser who was about to claw Willows head off, he fell, dead. Willow got up and we finished off the last four erasers. Suddenly there were three high pitched whistles in ascending notes. All the fighting stopped and who was left of the erasers and X's were gone in two seconds flat.

"Well that was odd!"

"Ya think."

Raven was just getting up when I looked over at Angel. She had a small cut on her forehead and a large bruise forming on the side of her head. I knelt down by her, cleaned up the cut then picked her up. We couldn't wait for her to wake up so I would have to fly and carry her. Now where to go?

_Max head back to our house. Your mother and I found a new home and we need to talk about something. Besides it's almost Christmas and we have presents for all of you, even Sasha. _

_Whatever Jeb, you still need to get a life. _

_Maybe, maybe not._

"Hey guys, U and A, head to my mom's house."

I got various nods then we all took off. Even with Angel being light, she was still kind of hard to carry and fly with at the same time. Gazzy stayed close to me and Fang flew over me, ready to take Angel when I got too tired of carrying her.

Christmas, never really celebrated Christmas, wonder what it's like.

**Yes the next chapter is going to be about Christmas because well you all should know why, if you don't well you need help. Anyway I'm also having a contest, anyone who can guess correctly the animal gene X's have will get their name on the next chapter and something else I haven't thought of yet so yeah. Review all the same and I'm still really sorry I wasn't able to update in a while. Review.**


	27. Call Me Dad

**Okay I know it's taking me a while to update but I've got a lot of stuff going on. I'll try to update at least one more time during break. Oh and I'm sorry to say but no one guessed what hybrid the X's were. There were some close ones though. Let's see you guys guessed a fox, cat, wild cat, badger, puma, leopard, and an alligator. My favorite was the alligator. Anyway as promised the X's are human and wolverine. (Yes that is a real animal. Not a person on the X-men show.) **

**Max POV**

"Max!" Ella came dashing out of the house and nearly knocked me over. We had been flying for the whole day with only three breaks and frankly we were all exhausted.

"Hi to you to Ella, where's mom and Jeb?"

"At the store stocking up on food for everyone. Oh Max we're going to have such a great Christmas. You guys have awesome gifts; we even have stuff for Sasha, Total and Cloud."

A car honked behind us and I swear we all jumped ten feet in the air, Total went twenty. You could see Jeb and my mom laughing in the car. We moved aside so they could get into their new garage. When did they get a garage, I have no idea. Mom came out and greeted us all while Jeb carried bag after bag of stuff into the house.

"Um Dr. Martinez, not to be rude but your house is kind of small for twenty two kids."

I shot Eel the bird. Truth be told, I was thinking the same thing.

"Don't worry about anything. We prepared for this. Follow me."

We followed my mom back into the woods that surround her house. In a large clearing hidden by very tall trees was a barn.

"I never told you all about this but the person who owned this house before us built a barn out here. I don't know why. So Jeb and I fixed it up. It's perfect for Ella and her friends, a quiet place to go and a place big enough for your whole flock to stay comfortably. Go inside and check it out."

Okay I'll spare you all the unimportant details but the place had two stories. The ground floor had blue carpeting and blue walls. There were three couches and two chairs all centered around a small T.V. There was a table with four chairs and three windows provided good light. There were two doors and a large space empty for anything. There was a bathroom and four small rooms. On the second floor was more blue carpet and blue walls with a couch and one chair. There was another large space and four small bedrooms, each with a bed and enough room for two more people to sleep on the floor. There was also another bathroom and four windows. To my standards this was a pretty cool place.

I was currently flipping through channels on the T.V. and it was about nine pm. and tomorrow was Christmas, I couldn't wait. The only people who were up were me, Cammie, Sasha, and Willow. Earlier that day we had gotten settled down and Jeb had come and talked to me. He told me a little more about the X's and before he left he told me that I could call him dad. Not any time soon thank you.

"Max stop. You just passed a great channel."

I turned back a couple of channels and saw what Cammie had meant. There was a music video to the song Last Night by Skillet playing. We had heard this song before and I loved it. I looked at the girls and we hopped over the couch and started acting extremely weird. We even sang along. Besides Cammie and I, Sasha and Willow could sing well too.

By midnight I was the only one left awake. I went outside and flew to the top of the barn. Even though I was sure we were safe for now, I still had to do watch. I was able to stay awake until the sky started to turn pink. Then I fell asleep.

**I promise I'll get the Christmas chapter up ASAP but review for this chapter please and have a Merry Christmas.**


	28. Christmas

Hey everyone I hope you all had a Merry Christmas. Sorry it's taken me so long to update but we had a short break. Anyway this is the Christmas chapter and then… well you'll just have to read.

**Max POV Christmas Day**

I heard shuffling and giggling that drifted through my dreams. I opened my eyes to see Ari and Ella only a few inches from my face.

"Ahhhhhhhhh."

How had they gotten up on the roof and wait, I was in the barn in the living room. Fang.

"Ari we told you to wake up Max, not scare her half to death."

"Sorry mom, sorry Max."

"It's okay Ari." I said while getting up off the couch. I kicked Fang, who was at the other end of the couch, awake. He groaned and got up.

"Merry Christmas Max. Get everyone up. Breakfast in about ten minutes in the house."

"Whatever Jeb."

I started looking around the barn for the flock. They had all moved at least once during the night. I finally gave up then just yelled breakfast as loud as I could. Within ten seconds my flock were waking up and heading for the house.

Last night was so amazing, that I had even relaxed a bit. Now I realize that my anxiety was back, but for some reason not as bad.

We all piled into the house and took up residence anywhere large enough for someone and a large plate of food. Mom, Jeb, Ella, Ari, Angel, and Tint were sitting around the table; Trent, Uno, Gazzy, and Sky were sitting in the hallway, while Ice and Charm were on top of the counter. Nudge, Star, Red, and Coal were on the furniture in the living room; Iggy, Raven, and Sasha were spread out on the floor; Cammie, Blade, Willow, and Eel were on top of some book shelves while Fang and I were on the window sills. So it was pretty much as cramped as anything.

Once we were all done eating Jeb went and got out a Bible. He told everyone to be quiet and he started to read about the birth of Jesus. All the while I was looking at my flock. The younger kids seemed to really enjoy and believe what Jeb read, but I was having doubts. Yet something just seemed right when Jeb read about the angels and the star.

When Jeb finished reading he looked at the Christmas tree.

"So is that what Christmas is all about?" I looked at Uno. He normally wouldn't ask stuff like that but when he did he really wanted to know.

"Yup Uno that's what started Christmas and that's still the reason we celebrate it. Now who wants to help me pass out presents?"

Angel, Tint, Ari, and Ella all got up and followed Jeb into a back room. They came out with stuffed all wrapped up and added it to the already large pile of gifts under the Christmas tree. They all started to hand out gifts and I couldn't help but notice how happy the flock looked. When they each got a present their faces lit up and they tore into it. Even Fang had a half smile on his face. Not much could make them this happy and I really couldn't remember the last time I had seen them all relax.

"WOW, thank you Mrs. Martinez, this is great."

I looked at Nudge. She was holding up a fleece blanket that had a picture of a Bald Eagle on it. The flock were each holding up their gifts while Ella, mom, Ari and Jeb smiled. Fang had on a new pair of black sunglasses, while Sasha was showing him a ring with a silver band with a small purple stone. Eel was playing with a new, small, digital camera, taking pictures of Willow holding up a T-Shirt with a willow tree on it. Raven was putting on a watch with a picture of a, you guessed it, raven. Blade was holding a pack of sharpies and three cans of spray paint, he was really good at drawing and Cammie was putting on a pair of stretchy camouflage gloves. Just to let you know, she for some reason likes wearing gloves.

I looked at Iggy who was sitting by Gazzy. They were grinning from ear to ear. Jeb wouldn't have gotten them…

"Iggy what's on the papers?"

Iggy looked up at me and his face went red.

"Nothing, just…"

"Show me Ig."

Iggy sighed.

"There plans for small bombs that are really easy to make. They were my present."

I would have to have a serious talk with the kid but I dropped the subject, partially because Angel had come up to me.

"What sweetie."

"Look what I got."

She pulled out a small snow globe with a manger scene in it.

"Pretty Angel."

Angel sat down next to Tint who was holding a stuffed animal dog. Next to them Uno was playing with a metal slinky and Sprinkle was trying to put on a necklace with a raindrop on it. Coal was showing off a belt he had put on that had flames on it. Red had gotten a sweet looking silver chain with a shark tooth on it while Star had on a mood ring. Ice was playing a small hand-held game while Charm was putting on an ankle bracelet that had a bunch of charms on it. Trent was tossing around a hackie sack and Gazzy was making funny noises into a tape recorder. Last Sky was admiring a new pillow that had clouds on it. Mom, Jeb, Ari, and Ella were hugging each other and opening their own presents.

"Oh wait there's another part to your guy's gifts. Where going to take you all shopping for some new cloths, hair cuts and all that stuff. You all even have new sweatshirts and backpacks still in the back room."

Everyone hoorayed for joy and even though I was feeling a little left out, I joined them. We all desperately needed new cloths and haircuts. I noticed Jeb whispering something to Ella and she went into the back room.

The thing was, I was already thinking ahead to when we would have to leave. All our gifts were small enough to take with us but soon we'd be on the run again fighting erasers and trying to stop Itex.

Ella came out of the room with a small present. She came over and handed it to me.

"Merry Christmas sis."

She hugged me and sat back down. Only then did I notice my flock were staring at me.

_Open it Max._

I took off the wrapping paper to find a diary. It said "The Best…"on the cover and I opened it. Inside were empty pages and a few were already filled out. I looked at the ones already filled out. There was one titled The Best Flock, this had everyone's signatures on it. Another was titled The Best Family, and there were a few other ones. I looked at the last one, which said the best Maximum Ride. There were little blurbs from everyone.

"We all finished your gift once you fell asleep." Ari said while smiling. Since he was saved and deeraserfied, he was really a cute kid who could now live a normal life.

"Thanks guys I love it." And I really did.

"Now Max, everyone, Jeb and I have been talking and we want you all to stay for a while and take a break. You all need it and it will give Itex a chance to cool down." I looked at my mom. We did need a break but for how long. I noticed again, that the flock were looking at me. All the younger kids had longing in their eyes.

"How long are you talking here?"

"Well Max," Jeb said while pulling out a folder. "Probably for a while. We want you all to stay and attend the school Ella and Ari go to. Your education hasn't been well… you really haven't had any education and it will give you all a chance to do some discrete investigating on Itex."

Some of the longing had disappeared form everyone's eyes but they still wanted to stay. I gave Fang my what-do-you-think look and he gave me back his it's-your-call look. I really didn't want to go to school again but for some reason I knew it was needed.

"Alright we'll stay and go to the normal torture facility." Everyone laughed, but I hadn't been kidding. Last time I was at a school everything had went wrong and I was always jumpy and on high alert.

_It won't be that bad Max. You'll go back after Christmas break and we'll figure stuff out from there._

**Yeah I'm sending the flock back to school. But there's a reason. Please review and I'll update ASAP. **


	29. First Day of School

**Exams are finished finally and I hated them. So here's my next chapter. **

**Max POV**

Beep, beep, beep.

I opened my eyes to see a blue ceiling and a shadow outside my bed.

Beep, beep, beep.

"Aaaagh!"

I fell off my bed and when I looked at the window again, the shadow had turned out to be an owl, obviously not happy that he was kicked out of this barn a while ago.

"Stupid owl, shut-up alarm clock."

I hit the stop button on the alarm clock and got up. Today was our first day going to school again; at least we didn't have to wear uniforms this time. Christmas break was over and now we had to look like regular kids without wings.

Earlier in the week we had all been enrolled under different names, and given our new schedules. Picking out our new names though was hilarious. My new name is Alesha Martinez, while Tint had chosen Sara Martinez. So I know had another little sister. Fang, Sasha, and Trent were posing as siblings with the last name Black. Fang chose the name Zack, Sasha is Emily, and Trent is Devan.

Iggy, Willow, and Blade are posing as siblings with Rowen as their last name. Iggy's name is Aaron, Willow's is Shelby and Blade's is Cody. Of course Raven and Eel are siblings and they chose Shantel Brown, for Raven, and John Brown for Eel. There was no way that Sprinkle, Coal, Red, and Star could not pose as siblings, they just looked too much a like. So Sprinkle chose the name Jamie, Coal wanted Daniel, Red is Collon, and Star is Samantha, all with the last name Rock. Cammie and Uno are posing as siblings with the last name Drake. Cammie is Alyssa and Uno is Todd.

The last two pairs of siblings are Gazzy and Angel, of course, and Ice and Charm. Ice is Doug Smith while Charm is Misha Smith. Gazzy is Robby Hillis and Angel is Rachel Hillis. Sky and Nudge are the only two not posing as siblings with someone. Nudges fake name is Kayla Green and Sky's is Chelsea Lee.

I got out one of my new outfits, a pair of boot cut jeans, (I read what the label said) and a dark blue t-shirt, and threw my hair into a ponytail. Once we had gone shopping, the whole flock got new cloths. Even though we had gone to second hand shops, I really hadn't cared, we got new cloths and we got more than one outfit. Then came the fun part, yesterday my mom and Jeb took us all to get haircuts. It took the whole day because well, there were 22 of us, two adults and we had to get cuts at different shops, so as not to raise suspicion.

Another thing we had done was divide up the barn. The kids, who were going to elementary school, Angel, Gazzy, Uno, and Tint, slept in the house and shared two bedrooms. The elementary school started later than the middle or high school and got out later as well. That left the rest of us the barn.

I have my own room on the bottom floor because it's only big enough for one person. That's why I missed it when I searched the house. Turns out there are five rooms on the bottom floor. Blade, Iggy, Willow, and Sasha also have rooms down here but they have to share them with one of the younger kids. Fang, Eel, Raven, and Cammie have rooms upstairs that they have to share with one of the younger kids as well. So I'm the only one with a room to myself.

I opened my door and turned on the lights. No one else was up, probably because I had set my alarm earlier than everyone else. Two days ago Jeb had installed a refrigerator/freezer into our little kitchen space. We now also had a microwave. I opened the refrigerator and pulled out milk, and juice and I set glasses out for everyone to take. When I opened the cupboard I took out boxes of granola bars, Little Debbie's cakes, and ice cream bars from the freezer and put them on the table. I know, not a very good breakfast but I don't care and we need the calories for later.

I grabbed what I wanted to eat, my sweatshirt, and my bag and sat down on the couch. I took out one of my notebooks and inside was the school schedule of the flock members who were in tenth grade. (Raven, Eel, Sasha, Fang, Iggy, Willow, Blade, Cammie, and I.)

I had first hour geometry with Raven and our teacher was a Mr. Fezzey. Second hour I had with Willow for English with Mrs. Ross. Third hour was chemistry with Mrs. Harlet; Iggy was also in that class. Fourth hour Sasha and I had American history together with Mrs. Rain. Fifth hour Eel and I had art with Mr. Jay and sixth hour I had gym with Fang and our teacher was Mr. Kimball.

Fang and Coal came downstairs about the same time Willow and Charm came out of their bedroom. They grabbed what they wanted for breakfast. I told them to get their stuff around and about five minutes later everyone was awake, fed and ready to go.

"Key guys remember to blend in and act normal. Do NOT show your wings or do anything with them. Also don't do anything with your abilities. Call each other by our fake names and do not tell anyone about the flock. Remember, besides our 'siblings' we don't know each other. Know I won't be in the middle school so I have to trust you guys, I looked at all the kids who were going to the middle school, and you need to think before you act. If anything happens, split up, half go to the elementary school and the other half go to the high school. Got it?"

Everyone nodded. Yesterday we had gone to our schools, met our teachers, and did everything else important. Once it was time to go I went into the house, told the younger kids goodbye/blend in lecture, and then we took off. Yes, we were allowed to fly to school but we each had to land a little ways away and walk in at different spots. I was the last to land and I nearly ran the rest of the way to school.

I stopped at my locker, dumped off my stuff, and then went to look for the flock. I was halfway down the hall, just having spotted Blade when the principal's voice came over the PA system.

"Attention please, I need all of our new students to come to my office immediately. Alesha Martinez, Zach and Emily Black, Aaron, Shelby and Cody Rowen, Shantel and John Brown, and Alyssa Drake."

The principal said a few other names that I didn't recognize, so I headed to the office. All the while my stomachs in a million knots, I feel like I'm about ready to explode and there are way too many kids here all crammed into the hallways. The principal made it even worse by announcing all of our names and calling us out. It felt like I had a spotlight on me, with all the looks kids gave me.

Once I was at the office the receptionist led me to a large room. Turned out I was the last one to arrive, gee I wonder why. I sat down in a comfy chair by Fang with no one else on my other side. The principal stood up. This should be interesting.

"Now that you're all here, I need to go over a few special rules we have here. First…"

I zoned out and just looked like I was listening. I had grown up not listening to adults much, why should I start now. Suddenly I felt Fangs hand on my hand. I flinched slightly because I was so nervous and up tight. Fang squeezed my hand, and some of my tension eased away. That is, until the bell rang.

I got up and headed to my first hour. Raven and I were seated in the back, thank goodness, and the hour flew by. When there was only five minutes left, two girls came up to us. My mental alarms went off and I tensed.

"Hi, you are the two new girls. I'm Ashley and this is Tori. If you have any questions came and ask us."

I managed a thank you and once Ashley and Tori were sitting back down again I noticed another girl and a boy talking to each other. They looked our way then turned back around. Then the bell rang. I swear I jumped ten feet in the air, sitting down. Raven giggled and I shot her the bird.

All the people brushing up against me in the hallway made me walk a little faster and when I mean faster I ran down the hallway. I met Willow at the door of my second hour and again we sat in the back. Odly I found the class a little interesting and I was able to get my heart to stop thudding so loudly. Again I noticed that same girl that was in my math class in this class.

During the end of the hour she came up to Willow and I. There was something that I liked about her. She was just as nervous as I was, I could feel her emotions. (I know I just broke my own rule but nobody knew.)

"Um hi, welcome to our school. I'm Amber. I saw I have Geometry with you Alesha. If you have any questions go ahead and ask."

"Thanks, I will."

Amber sat down and then came third hour. Iggy was already in love with Chemistry, it helped that our teacher made something explode and Iggy got to show how smart he was by showing Mrs. Harlet how to make the explosion longer. Fourth hour with Sasha was BORING! Sasha though seemed to enjoy it.

Lunch came and I was so nervous I wasn't even hungry. I got in the lunch line though when I saw Amber. She saw me too and waved at me to come stand by her. I went up to her and she introduced me to the boy I saw her talking to in Geometry.

"Alesha this is Shay, Shay this is Alesha." Even though I still felt like I wanted to pop and fly away I found it easier to talk to Amber and Shay as time went on. I sat with them and their other friends at one of the back tables.

"Hey guys," Amber waved at a guy and a girl, "this is Alesha, she's knew and is gonna sit with us."

The other guys name was Josh and the girl was Casey. During our conversation, I sat and listened, I noticed Sasha, Iggy, and Cammie all had this lunch as well. Sasha sat at a very noisy table with those two girls, Ashley and Tori, and some other kids. Iggy sat at a table where I could tell he was being asked a million questions. Cammie sat at a table with all the very athletic people, mostly guys, and all she seemed to do was smile and laugh along with everyone else.

The bell rang and I had art with Eel. Eel and I sat in back and well, Eel just talked all hour to some other kids. We didn't really do anything. Then came gym. I was excited to see Fang, yet was trying to figure out how to get into my gym cloths without anyone seeing my wings, when I heard someone calling my name.

"Alesha wait."

I turned to see Amber and Casey catching up to me.

"Hi," I said as they caught up. I wasn't really tense around them and they were really trying to be my friend. I could tell.

"Hi. It's so cool you have gym."

We were the first three girls into the gym. I had successfully gotten on my gym cloths without anyone seeing them. I saw Josh and Shay and we talked to them. Josh and Shay were just as nice as Amber and Casey, but I really wanted to talk to Fang. When he came in before I could get to him though, two girls and two boys, all athletic looking led him away. Fang shot me a sorry look. I turned my attention back to Amber talking.

"Alright dodge ball today, get into teams of five." Our gym teacher yelled while leading us to the wrestling room where a bunch of mats were set up. You can guess who Fang and I were with. Before we started though Fang sent me a can-we-show-off-just-a-little-bit look. I nodded my head, hey I planned on taking out those two girls that were on Fang's team that just seemed to cling to him.

Fang's team was up first against another team and the match lasted about two seconds with Fang's team winning.

"Hey do you guys like this?"

Amber, Casey, Josh, and Shay all nodded.

"We like it, and we're okay at it but we need someone who can move fast and throw a ball hard to win against that team. Why?" 

Amber pointed towards Fang's team.

"I kind of shine in athletic stuff, that's all." And I REALLY wanted to nail those two red head girls who keep flirting with Fang. He's mine.

Finally we were up and Mr. Kimball blew the whistle. I told everyone to let Fang's team have the balls. One of the guys threw a ball at Casey and she dodged it. She picked up the ball and used it to block two more balls that the red heads shot at her. Both Shay and I picked up a ball and dodging balls coming at me I nailed one of the girls in the shoulder. It looked like it hurt too, hehehe.

"Tara you're out."

Shay gave me another ball right before he got hit. Josh hit one of the other guys but got hit by Fang. It was just us girls.

"Look, just try to catch balls and dodge. I'll throw 'em."

Amber and Casey nodded. I acted like I was going to throw the ball at Fang, but instead threw it at the other red head girl. I hit her in the leg and she walked off the mat, sending me death glares. I smiled, that's what you get for messing with Fang.

Then Amber got out and I narrowly missed getting hit by a ball thrown by Fang. Casey handed me her ball and I nailed the other guy, right before Fang got Casey out. Both Fang and I each threw a ball at the same time. Mine hit Fang in the shoulder and his also hit me in the shoulder. Unlike Fang though I dived to catch my ball and caught it.

"Zach you're out. Alesha your team moves to the kings' side of the mat."

Let's just say no one stood a chance against us. I did get hit once, but that was so I didn't look that good.

The bell rang and school was out. I grabbed my homework and rushed out of the school as fast as I could. Turns out the hallways are worse after school. I was the first person at the clearing that was our meeting place. Once everyone was there we took off.

"How was everyone's first day?"

I got nods and a lot of interesting stories about how hungry people were, especially from Nudge and Sprinkle. Red asked me about my day and to cheer everyone up I told the flock about how I smoked Fang in gym. Once we got home, a little later Angel, Gazzy, Uno and Tint walked in.

That night when I went to bed I really had a bad feeling about tomorrow.

**I know long, but I don't know when I can update again. Review please. **


	30. Max's Promise

**Hey what happened I only had one review for the last chapter, so if you all don't review I don't think you like this fantic and I update a lot slower. So yeah REVIEW.**

"Alesha can you answer this question?"

_37, Jeb popped in._

"Oh um the answer is 37."

"Good now…" Mr. Fezzey's voice faded into the background.

_Jeb I thought you had to work._

_I do but I never have anything to do at work right now. _

_I've said this before and I'll say it again Jeb, GET A LIFE!_

If Jeb wasn't speaking to me through my mind he would have sighed. Today was out second week of school. Nothing interesting had happened and nobody could find anything about Itex. Jeb's spies say Itex is licking its wounds and trying to make even more X's. The only thing that really changed was, because of my paranoia, I met the younger kids at a spot after they got out of school as well. What can I say; I didn't want anything happening to my flock.

My flock that are in tenth grade have been 'admitted' into other groups at school. And anytime I see another girl flirting with Fang I feel like exploding. Although I'm able to take all my anger out on those two blond girls in my gym class, they officially hate me, hehehe. Casey and Amber are okay, and besides the flock they're my only 'friends' I have.

I still can't believe how boring regular life is. It also doesn't help that every time I'm at school my stomach ties up in knots and I get so jumpy that when we had a fire drill I fell out of my desk. Willow just looked at me and tried not to laugh.

Well the only times of day in school I look forward to are gym class, lunch, and the last bell. Speaking of last bell, I had my mom write notes for everyone, (well at least the kids in the lower grades, the rest of us are just skipping) and at the end of fourth hour we would be out of school early to other stuff.

So anyway second, third, and finally fourth hour came and went. I ran to our meeting place and waited for everyone. Fang was only a minute or so behind me.

"How was your shortened day?"

"I'm about ready to shake those two blond girls silly."

"Oh good, I'm not the only one."

"You know Max, they were talking about you yesterday in gym class, and they really don't like you."

"To bad, so sad, I DON'T CARE."

Fang laughed. Can you believe it, Fang laughed. So the only logical thing to do was laugh along, and that's what I did. The rest of my flock arrived soon after and we all started to take off. But then I noticed Star on the ground. I landed again and went over to her.

"Star what's wrong sweetie."

"Um Max, have any of the original flock found their parents?"

What the? "Well yes but… it turned out to be a total disaster."

"Oh, well I was wondering lately about who my parents were."

I saw a tear slide down Stars cheek. She never cried. Well almost never. I went over to her and gave her a hug.

"Star what happened?"

"Well lately I've been having these really bad nightmares. There's me and I can see Coal, red, and Sprinkle and two adults who look like us. A house is on fire and then a van pulls up and… and …" Star starts to cry and hard. I look her square in the eye.

"Star what happens?"

"The men take us from our parents. I see my mom and dad fighting but there are too many men. The van drives away and our parents are left with nothing. I know in my dreams that it's us, which means me; Coal, sprinkle, and Red have parents that may still want us. Max I really want to find my parents and just be normal."

The idea of losing part of my flock brought back a wave of pain and the memory of loosing Iggy. I didn't think I would ever be able to do that again. But, I loved my flock and would do anything for them, including giving them back to their parents.

"Okay, Star, after we leave my mom's I promise we'll look for your parents."

A look of pure joy crossed Stars face.

"Thank you so much Max, you're the best. I'm going to go tell Sprinkle, Coal and Red."

Star took off leaving me with a hopeless feeling. Star really wanted to find her parents, but what would happen if what she saw in her dream wasn't what really happened. What if her parents didn't want them now that they were mutant freaks? What if we couldn't even find their parents and most importantly, what if I couldn't bear to give them away?

Because I was so lost in thought I didn't hear the person sneaking up behind me. But suddenly I felt a knife at my throat.

**Dun dun dun. Review and I'll update as soon as I can. Oh and I need to know if you guys want Star to find her parents, and some of the other flock members find their parents as well. Review. **


	31. Leaving

**Okay so I like got two reviews for the last chapter. I mean come on people, I know I'm not updating very often but I need you all to review. So just pretend that, that little purple button is calling you to click on it. **

**Fang POV**

Star caught up with the rest of us just as we all landed on top of the barn. Max was probably waiting for the younger kids and would be here soon.

"Oh my gosh, Coal, Sprinkle, Red, you know those dreams I've been having?"

Even though I was facing the other way I listened intently to Star. Her voice was eager and I wondered what 'those dreams' were. Everyone else but Sasha hadn't heard Star, so guess who came to sit by me?

"Yeah, you were freaking out this morning. You said that it was nothing though." Red replied, by his tone, obviously bored.

"Well, I lied. I talked to Max and I asked her if we could look for our parents, she said yes. Isn't that great? We get to go find our parents."

Turning around I saw three kids with shocked faces and Star with a very fast falling eager face.

"Are you joking, do you not know what happened to Iggy when he found his parents. There is no way I'm going to even think about this. Besides Max and Willow are like our mom's. No way Star, I'm sorry but I don't want anything to do with this." Red jumped off the roof. Coal was shaking his head, hurt in his eyes but he followed Red. Sprinkle was obviously torn between her own feelings and trying not to hurt her sister.

"I'm sorry Star, but Nudge told me about what happened to Iggy, including the pain it caused the flock. I don't really want to disappoint myself by getting my hopes up and then being turned down. I also really don't want to cause the flock so much pain."

Sprinkle joined her brothers, leaving Star staring at her feet. Max was normally the one who dealt with this kind of stuff; I'd have to tell her later. So in her place Sasha got up and talked to Star, shooing me away in the process.

I couldn't believe Max was really willing to maybe loose one of her flock. The last time it caused her so much pain...

Walking into the barn, I saw chaos. To put it mildly, you could barely walk anywhere without stepping on something.

Oh man, when Max sees this she's gonna flip. There was backpacks and crap everywhere. I couldn't even see the floor.

"Everyone responsible for the mess in the living room, down here NOW!"

Nudge, Charm, Ice, Total and Cloud all slinked down the stairs. So the animals were in on it too. With guilty faces the culprits faced me.

"Clean up before Max gets back or you're going to have to deal with her." Glaring at every one of them, the kids started to clean up, including Total and Cloud, all of them rushing because of the Max threat. I hadn't been kidding though; Max would kill them if she saw this mess. Besides, she had a lot to do without having to clean up after every one.

An hour passed. Sasha had walked in with a more cheery faced Star some time ago. I had walked into the room I used and watched out the window. Some part of my mind was telling me that something was wrong. Max should have been home by now. Yet she wasn't and neither were Angel, Tint, Trent or Gazzy. Cammie and Blade had taken off about a half hour ago to get some extra groceries and they still hadn't come back. Only fifteen minutes ago I'd asked Raven to see if any of the animals around saw something out of place in the woods, they hadn't.

There was a quiet knock on the door and before I could tell the person to come in Sky rushed in, closing the door behind her. There was fear in her eyes and her bottom lip quivered.

"Sky…"

"Fang there are some men around the woods. They have Angel, Tint, Trent, and Gazzy. I know they do. I could also see Max tracking the men."

I didn't let her finish. I was out of the door and running down the hall. Amazingly, Sky kept up.

"Sky get everyone outside, inside." Sky ran to the door and disappeared. She would know not to fly and to keep tabs on the men.

Turning around I ran towards Iggy's room. He was working on a bomb, of course, and he hastily put it away.

"Iggy, get everyone down to the living room. We've got a problem." He didn't question me, he just did it.

Sky was in the living room with Red, Coal, Charm, and Raven.

"Add erasers to the mix in the woods." Great, now we had to get out of here. Just then, Blade and Cammie burst in panting and out of breath.

"Fang, erasers coming, where's Max?" Blade said looking around. Iggy had gotten everyone down.

"Guys hurry and pack, we need to get out of here. Iggy you know where we met up a long time ago by Lake Mead?"

He nodded.

"Okay take everyone there and wait for me. I'm gonna go find and help Max. Willow's in charge."

The confused faces lasted only a second because Sky screamed. She told everyone to hit the deck and we did. A hail of bullets penetrated the windows scattering glass everywhere. Willow put up a shield over us and bullets bounced off harmlessly.

Tensing, getting ready for a fight, I bounced up once Willow took down the shield. I glanced out the window to see erasers, some flyboys and even two or three X's coming towards the barn.

"Everyone upstairs and take off. Fly as fast as you can."

Iggy and Raven were able to grab a bag each and Total hoped in with Iggy, Cloud with Raven. I made sure everyone was to the second story before I pulled up the stairs. Just as I latched them shut I heard the door being knocked down.

"Go now."

Sasha held open a window in the back. I asked Charm to put a mirage around the window, making it look like we weren't taking off from it.

One by one, we took off, silently flying high and fast. Unfortunately, a flyboy saw us and we had erasers on us quick. In the distance approaching fast I saw Angel, Tint, Trent, Gazzy, and Max.

_Fang I felt the erasers. Max saved us from these one guys who had guns and it was funny. Once the guns were gone, Max got really mad. _

I smiled at the picture I could imagine in my head. When Max got mad, I didn't even try to mess with her. It was also a good thing Max was coming because there were a lot of erasers.

We met and all turned around to face the onslaught.

"Okay guys, split up and meet back at the high school. Take down as many erasers as possible, but stay away from the X's." Max ordered everyone. Somehow we were all calmer, probably because everyone knew we wouldn't be facing this without Max.

We all took our positions and waited for the erasers. That's when a part of me began nagging to fly instead of fight. When I turned around I didn't see any reason why, but then I saw them and I knew we were in trouble.

**Okay I'll update soon, but you all have to review, review, review.**


	32. Prepair To Fight

**I'm soooooo sorry for not updating and you all probably want to reach through the screen and strangle me, but I'm updating. It also didn't help that I didn't get that many reviews from people. Thanks to those who did review and here's the next chapter.**

**Oh just another random note… J.P. wrote another Max Ride book and it's coming out the 17****th**** of March. So yeah, squeal like I'm a little girl again.**

**Max POV**

I turned to look in the direction Fang was staring at and dread enveloped me instantly. I knew, yet really hoped against, that one or more of my flock were going to get hurt or even die. Coming at us at a leisurely pace were about ten erasers and about twenty five mature looking X's. And then the other some odd number of erasers in front of us.

"Screw what I said before guys. If we get separated or if you get hurt, there are some well hidden cliffs about three hours away from here, fly there and wait."

My flock all looked at me confused, well all except Fang who was still staring at the same thing I was. The other erasers that originally made us stop, were stopped and waiting for the other group. We couldn't fly away because we were trapped between the two groups and even if we tried, the erasers and X's would pick up the pace and be on us within seconds.

"Max what are you…" Eel began to ask me, and then he turned around, as did the rest of my flock. "OH CRAP!!"

Yeah, that was an understatement, but I'll think it anyways, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap!

_Max calm down and lead! Your mother, Ella and I won't be able to get to you in time so LEAD! _

_Excuse me Jeb, since when do you have the right to tell me what to do and just to let you know, I AM LEADING! _

Jeb started to say something else but I cut the connection he had opened. Think Max, think, figure a way out of this, you always do.

As much as I hated to admit it, I was having one of those very, very rare moments when the only option I had was to fight and hope my flock didn't die.

"Okay everyone spread out in teams and get ready to fight. I've had enough of all of this, we either go down fighting, taking them with us, or we fight and beat the crap out of Itex later. I'm sick of playing puppet; we make our stand here and then take down Itex later!"

Amazingly, my whole flock, including myself and Fang, punched their fists into the air at the same time. I was really good at the motivational speeches now, cool.

I watched my flock got ready to fight, as the onslaught of our enemies came closer and closer. They were only about a minute or two away now. I took one last glance at my flock. Blade, who had black energy around his hands, was by Cammie as she was trying to concentrate so she could constantly blend and disappear. Eel had sparks going between his fingers and by him Willow, had a small shield over each hand. Raven and Iggy were by each other holding Total and Cloud in their backpacks. Raven was talking to some birds while Iggy was going through some of his bombs. Sasha, Fang and I were grouped together in the middle of everything. Sasha had some of her many knifes out that she could fight with, while Fang was concentrating. I took a glance at the sky to see thick storm clouds covering the sun. Great, let's add a storm to this mix!

Star caught my attention as she flew to me.

"What Star?" Star looked at me then at her brothers and sister who each cask her a look of sadness and yet… betrayal?

"Well um I talked to Red, Coal, and Sprinkle and they don't want to try to find our parents, but I still do. You'll still help, right?"

Ugh, she just had to bring this up right now. I swallowed the hurt and pain building in my chest and nodded at Star. She smiled at me and flew back over to where she was before. Fang cask me a sidelong glance and all I could do was let him feel my emotions about that really quick. He nodded in understanding.

Looking back over at the four, Red was closest to the ground with some rocks floating by him, Sprinkle was getting water from the now moist air, Coal had his hands in the position to start a fire and Star was making it just a little more windy than normal. Above the four, Ice, Charm, Sky and Nudge hovered. Nudge and Sky both had out some knifes Sasha had given them, and then had taught them how to fight with then. Ice had his breath visible and Charm was concentrating, getting ready to make her famous illusions.

Trent, Uno, and Gazzy, were by each other, below us and to the left a little. Trent was getting ready to fly through something, Uno had four copies of himself made and Gazzy was fingering some of his own bombs. The last group was Angel and Tint. Angel was trying to concentrate while Tint was going between visibility and invisibility. I was going to stay close to those two.

The cloud of our enemies was only about a minute away when two other people joined the group. Black and Omega, they just had to show up at the worst times ever. Suddenly I thought of a way to make sure we could win, but I knew the minute I said it Fang would freak.

"Fang!" Fang turned to look at me. I saw the determination in his eyes.

"Look Fang, I've got an idea. If we start to loose or some other bad thing happens, I need you to promise me something."

His face was cautious now. He knew I was going to ask him something that would probably tear his heart out.

"That depends, what is it you want me to promise?"

"If I tell you to, you will take everyone to those caves and wait there. Because if I ask you to do that I'm going to…" I couldn't finish. If I allowed myself to loose control of my emotions, I may be able to take out all the erasers and X's left, but if my flock were there I could easily kill them too. Although loosing control of my emotions uses a lot of my energy so if I exceed my energy then I also ran the risk of dieing. Sometimes I really hated my emotions.

"Max, I can't make that promise." He had probably guessed what I was going to say. Well if he was going to be that way…

"Willow!" I yelled. She looked at me and nodded. She had heard the whole thing.

"If that's _really_ what you want Max then, I can't argue with you. So I'll get everyone out of here if you ask."

"Thanks Willow." I smiled at her and then looked back at the cloud of evil coming at us. I felt something touch my arm and ended up looking into Fangs eyes. His touch sent chills up and down my arm and his eyes conveyed his worry, something that never happened.

"Max what were you… I mean if you… Ugh just please don't do it. I need you!"

I let Fang feel my emotions and I felt his. He was absolutely terrified that I was going to end up dieing. Yeah right, not if I could help it.

"Fang I'm not going to die. And I love you too." I leaned over and kissed him. It was quick but somehow we were each able to convey our feelings without my help.

"Ugh get a room." Gazzy and Uno yelled at us. I glared at both of the boys and then smiled. I was determined to get them all out alive.

"I love you too Max." Fang whispered in my ear before he took his place between Sasha and I. I was about to tell him something back but there was a loud clap of thunder and then the erasers, X's, Black and Omega were on us in 3... 2... 1...

**Review and I'll post again soon. I don't have as much to do so yeah. REVIEW! **


	33. My Perfect Enemy

**Okay so I got reviews that said I was soooo evil because of where I stopped, they made me laugh. So here's the next chapter and I'll give you guys a hint, someone dies! Enjoy.**

**Max POV**

_3…2…1…_

We all collided and the air filled with a tension that you could probably cut with a knife. My goal was to get Black and Omega out of the way, but when I was about twelve feet away from Black, an X block my way. He looked young but not brand new; I would have to be careful. 

"So you're the famous Maximum Ride, I really expected more." The X sneered right to my face.

"Funny, another X told me that and I ended up beating his butt." I lunged at the X swinging my fist. At the last second though I dived and kicked him in the stomach. A move like that would have caused even the strongest eraser to get the wind knocked out of him, but all I did was knock him a foot backwards. Crap he was extra strong. 

"You'll have to do better than that Max."

He swung a clawed hand out at my face, missed and ended up clipping my shoulder with his boot when I kicked his knee in. The X growled in pain. 

"Good enough for you?"

The X flew at me in a rage. All I did was dive and he collided with an eraser that had fallen for the same trick. They fell, but about six feet from the ground began to rise again. Only to be taken out by a lot of flying rocks controlled by Red. 

"Good move Iggy." I yelled. Iggy flashed me a grin and went to help out Nudge and Sky who were fighting a few erasers. I again tried unsuccessfully to get at Black. This time I was stopped by two adult looking X's. They never gave up, did they? 

So I ended up fighting both of them until Uno and his four clones, Gazzy, Trent, and Coal took over. Quickly surveying the fight I saw much to my relief that the fight was turning in our favor. But then an odd feeling of foreboding suddenly racked through my body when I should have been feeling relieved. That's when everything suddenly fell apart. 

Everything happened so fast in real time, but to me it lasted forever. 

There was a scream, a loud boom, and shiny silver nets covering the air. 

Cammie, Angel, Nudge, Willow, Charm, and Sky were all suddenly falling, trapped within the nets. But they all looked at someone else, Ice. Blood covered his stomach on his shirt and he began to fall. Since Blade, Eel, Fang, Iggy, Raven and Coal all were trying to catch everyone caught in the nets no one was close enough to Ice, yet Red and Star got to him before he hit the ground. 

The look they gave me from the ground was one of sadness, anger and horror. Realization hit me and made me want to puke. 

"MAX, behind you!" Sprinkle yelled, pointing to something. 

Turning around I saw Black holding a gun and smiling one of her twisted smiles. She had shot Ice, and was aiming right for me. I suddenly didn't care about my safety. My whole body was shaking with anger when Black smiled again and nodded towards Omega. He had a gun and it was pointed towards Gazzy, who was fighting an eraser. He fired and Gazzy started to fall. Trent and Uno caught him and laid him next to Ice on the ground.No, no, no!

"Who should we eliminate next Max? It's your choice." Black sneered. She still had the gun pointed my way, but it was pointed past me, towards Tint who was just finishing off an eraser who hadn't stopped fighting like the rest of the group. 

"WILLOW," I yelled, I knew they would be on the ground just getting out of the nets, "get everyone out of here!"

"Ha! Do you honestly think that's going to help…" Black's voice drifted off when she looked back at me. I heard Willow getting everyone away, they had little resistance. I was the prize and Black, Omega and all the X's left, (all the erasers were now gone) would all die because of what they had done.

I let my anger, resentment, and the rest of my emotions take over. I was a whole new Max; this Max was ruthless and almost unbeatable. When I looked at Black again she aimed the gun at me and fired. I had already kicked in my speed though, so the bullet just nicked my lower right leg. I didn't feel the pain yet, but once I got my emotions back under control, it would probably hurt a little. 

Anyway I slammed into Black and we tumbled towards the ground. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Omega being slammed by Fang, Iggy, and Raven. I was going to kill them once I was done with Black for disobeying my direct order to go with Willow. 

Once black and I were about six feet away from the ground, I unfurled my wings and kicked Black down into the ground. When she hit, water from growing puddles sprayed everywhere. It was then that I noticed it was pouring rain, the storm was getting worse. The rest of the X's were now gone… I had no idea why they left; they just did, leaving Black and Omega here.

Black got up and lunged at me. Punching her in the gut, I ended up stopping her in her tracks. I spun around and did a round house kick to her chest. I heard something crack and Black flew into a tree. When she got back up, she reached into her back pocket like she was going to grab her gun, which was about four yards away, but grabbed a knife instead. 

"This ends now Max."

"I know, you _will_ pay for hurting my flock and you will die!" The anger was rolling off of me in waves. I still didn't have control yet, and I could feel my strength ebbing away. Omega was still fighting Fang, Iggy, and Raven, and he looked like he was holding his own. The gun was gone though so I wasn't too worried. The rain was still intensifying, with clashes of thunder now and then. The clearing we were in was all mud, and I could hear the roar of water getting closer. There had to be a river close by that was flooding. As I thought this, Isaw a steady stream of water coming towards us. Black and I were standing on a flood plain. (School does sometimes have its advantages.)

Black lunged at me, but the knife sliced harmlessly where I had been before I had moved. I kicked the knife away and elbowed Black in the nose and kicked her in the stomach again. She landed by the gun, and a slow smile crept acrossed her face.

"Die Max." Black yelled pulling up the gun.

Again a short moment in time, took forever in my eyes. I remember suddenly being by Black and kicking the gun back towards her as theit fired. I heard Fang yell my name just when the pop of the gun was heard. Black's eyes went wide and she fell to the ground, dead, a pool of blood on her shirt right where her heart would be.

It was over. Black was dead. I suddenly got control of my emotions and I was me again. The water was now to the edge of the clearing. I stumbled backwards, only to have Fang arms, strong and hard, wrap around my waist. Omega landed by Black, scooped her up and took off. I heard him yell, "Max you will pay," then he was gone. Raven and Iggy were on either side of me, looking in disbelief. 

"Well that's over." I was able to croak out. I was soaked, my leg now burned and my energy was still fading. 

"You okay Max? MAX!" Raven yelled, shock crossing her face. 

My knees buckled, but I didn't hit the ground. Fang had me in his arms, while Iggy looked at my leg. I knew I was close to blacking out when Fang finally took off. 

"Go towards the caves," I whispered. My eyes met Fang's and he nodded. 

"I love you," was the last thing I said. I couldn't fight the darkness anymore. 

**Okay so review and you'll find out what happens to Max, Ice and Gazzy. I'll update soon.**


	34. Aftermath

So hi everyone and thanks to all who reviewed

**So hi everyone and thanks to all who reviewed. Um I won't have access to the internet for about two weeks so yeah, I won't be updating for two weeks so enjoy.**

**Rogan POV**

"WHAT!" I yelled at my assistant. How dare he have the nerve to come in here and tell me this? Omega, Black and their team should have won; they should have eliminated Max and brought back the useful hybrids.

"Yes ma'am, that's what Omega said. The flock destroyed all the erasers and two thirds of the X's. Max also… destroyed Black."

"NO! GET OMEGA IN HER NOW!" My assistant hurried out of the room. Quickly and angrily I beeped the lab and told them to send Sara up.

How could Max and her flock defeat them all? How could they be that strong?

Someone knocked at the door.

"Come in."

Omega and Sara stepped into my office. I glared at Omega and he looked behind me. There was a reason I was the director and no one ever forgot that, if they did…

"Omega, take Sara and kill Max. I want this ended NOW! Leave within the hour."

"Yes ma'am." Omega turned and walked out the door, Sara stayed, I needed to talk with her.

"Sara you understand the importance of this mission. You are not to let anyone see you other than that you may use any means possible the rid us of Maximum Ride. Got it?"

Sara smiled, the evil smile I saw reflecting on my face. Sara looked just like any normal eighteen year old would, long black hair, green eyes and a tan yet she was very far from normal. She learned how to defeat her enemies, learned their movements. She was an avian-human hybrid, but she was stronger than Max was supposed to be. She could also change the pressure of the air immediately around her, so she could suffocate someone within thirty seconds.

"Yes ma'am." Sara turned and walked out. If she couldn't destroy Max then so help me I would do it myself.

**Max POV**

I felt a hand stroking hair and I felt oddly comfortable. My eyes fluttered open to see Fang. My head was in his lap, while he was sitting on the end of the couch I was laying on. That's when the pain in my head hit about the same time the memories of the fight came back to me.

I sat up fast and got real dizzy, bad idea. Fangs hand was on my shoulder and then I was lying down again. Fang's face showed relief but his jaw was tight.

"Ugh, I feel like a boulder hit me. Where are we, how long has it been, and where is Ice and Gazzy?" I asked Fang.

"Max, we're at a cabin that we found deserted, it's been about six hours and Ice and Gazzy are with your mom. Your parents were at the cave when we finally got back. Your mother patched up Gazzy and he's going to be fine and it looks like Ice is going to be okay."

Thank goodness. I sighed and relaxed. No one else was in the room I was in which actually turned out to be a small room.

"Are you okay Max?" Fang asked me.

"Yeah I'm okay, but next time you guys don't obey an order like that I'm going kick your butts into next week." Fang laughed, it was tight and strained but it was a laugh.

"So how far are we from the caves?" I asked. Fang answered and he filled me in on everything else. Until he asked me the question we'd both been avoiding.

"Are we going to wait until this thing is over to… have a relationship?"

I thought about it and the answer I gave Fang was a no. Screw Itex, they had hurt my flock and now I was actually ready to go find a stupid island and live in peace. But would that actually happen, no.

**Sorry for the shortness but I'm running out of time. Review please and I'll update as soon as I have internet access again. **


	35. Makeovers and Hawaii

Okay I know you all probably want to run at me with a steak knife because I took so long to update

**Okay I know you all probably want to run at me with a steak knife because I took so long to update. Well put the knife down because here's the next chapter. **

**Eliza Rogan POV**

"The flock is stronger than some of our scientists thought. So I have sent out Omega and Sara to eliminate Max, which will inevitably be the flocks undoing."

Loud cheers filled the room. Up on stage behind the podium, my speech being done, I smiled and basked in the glory. My plan to rid the world of all the useless people would be put into action by Monday. People would die, but they would be the useless people that were destroying our world.

"Monday we will unite and win back our planet." And I would be ruler of all, the first world dictator.

**Max POV**

"All right guys we need to get out of here and drop off the radar for a while. Just long enough to figure some things out about Itex. Then we go at them and end it once and for all."

Twenty one faces nodded and smiled. Why smile you ask, because the place where we would drop off the radar would be near Hawaii. The plan was to settle on one of the small uninhabited islands near Hawaii. Nudge had gotten every one of the younger kids in on her plan and then she had them all give me bambi eyes. Not even Fang was able to resist.

It'd been a week since the fight with Black and Ice and Gazzy were all patched up and ready to fly. They weren't able to fly for very long, but they could still fly. Angel figured out about Fang and me, and told everyone. Actually she ran around squealing, 'Fang and Max are finally together.'

About three days ago we'd left the cabin and were hiding in a very large cave in Nevada. I had no idea how we would fly to Hawaii, because we couldn't take a plane with as many of us as there were, yet it seems like the only choice.

"Max, um… there's one other problem." Willow said speaking up. "I honestly think it's time for… make-over's again. Itex knows what we look like really well."

"Yeah Max can we pppplllllleeeeeeaaaaassssseeee." Nudge said while casting Willow a gleeful glance.

"Come on Max. Can we, can we, can we?" Sprinkle echoed.

I was bombarded with agreements and disagreements. Finally I gave up.

"Fang's decision, bombard him." I threw up my hands in defeat and looked at Fang. He was the one that now looked overwhelmed. I had actually given Fang the option because I didn't want to and Fang could turn down the kids without them getting totally mad at him.

Then I felt a pull on his emotions. He was going to say yes. No, ugh. Mental note, don't let Fang handle make-over decisions.

"Fine, but we're getting them before Hawaii, so we'd better go tonight." Blade, Eel, Cammie, Raven and I sent the bird to Fang. Angel, Tint, Charm, Sky, Nudge, and sprinkle were all over Fang; who ended up sending me a pleading look. I just smiled and proceeded to take off, why not let him suffer through his decision.

An hour later we were at a large mall in Phoenix. It had at least four salons and a ton of cheap clothing stores that took my bank card. I wasn't going to deal with looks so I told the stylists to do whatever they wanted with us, as long as we looked totally different.

So all of the guys ended up getting their hair cut short, while most of the girls were cut at different ways. Every one of us had our hair dyed. Angel and Tint ended up with blonder hair that what I thought possible, while Uno, Nudge, and even Fang's hair were also dyed blond. Yes I did say Fang was blond. He _hated_ it and ended up having another stylists dye it as dark as possible. So now he had dark brown hair. Anyway, Trent, Red, Coal, Gazzy, ended up with brown hair, while Sasha, Willow, Cammie, Eel, Ice, Sky, Iggy, Blade, and I all ended up with various shades of red. Charm, Raven, Sprinkle, and Star, ended up with varying degrees of black.

We all got a few new outfits that were very unlike us. To prove my point, I ended up with a skirt (I also bought a pair of shorts to go under it) and Fang even ended up with a bright yellow shirt. Everyone laughed when we saw him wearing it. He actually looked really nice in it though.

It took us all about five hours to get in and get out of the mall. All the while people were pressing close to me and I about hyperventilated a few times. So five hours to me felt like ten hours. Getting out of the mall felt like heaven. We all ducked into the dark alley where we'd hidden our bags, put our stuff away and took off.

The airport was not that far away. While in the mall, Raven and Cammie had come up with a good plan. We would split up into five groups. I would take the younger kids with me and Angel would get us past everyone so we would end up sitting on the plane. Fang would take a group and they would hide in the area where they kept all the baggage. Willow would take another group and Charm would use her illusions to get them past everyone so they were also on the plane with us, but in a different class. Cammie would take a group and use her camouflage to get past everyone and hide in one of the planes storage rooms. The last group, led by Blade, would sneak onto the plane and act like kids going on a trip or they would hide with either Fang or Cammie's groups.

We were off to Hawaii.

**So yeah, please review. I know this was kind of a random chapter but oh well. **


	36. Plane Ride

Okay so I know people probably want to kill me about now so here's another chapter

**Okay so I know people probably want to kill me about now so here's another chapter. Read, enjoy, review. **

**Fang POV**

The plane lurched again sending everyone in my group flying. We were in the cargo hold of the plane we'd all snuck onto. Now the plane was bumping up and down and baggage was hitting up left and right. It was hard to stand and stay standing for a certain period of time.

"Ouch!" I heard somewhere in the dark. Yes, we were completely in total darkness. Why did I have to be the one to volunteer to hide in the dark, cramped cargo hold?

Then the next second I felt the plane shudder and a loud pop went off. The plane had just lost an engine!

**Cammie POV**

"Ouch!" I heard someone say in the dark. We were in one of the larger storage rooms of the plane we'd all stole onto. The room was dark, cramped, hot, and full of us kids. Blade's group had decided that it would be a good idea to hide with us, making our room feel even worse.

"What is going on?" Blade asked next to me. The plane was bumping, lurching, and going everywhere.

"I don't know. We probably flew into a storm." I whispered to Blade. I could feel Blades hot breath on my face and calmness flooded through me.

That's when the plane gave a big lurch, there was a loud boom, and I cold feel the plane gliding. I put my hand in Blades. The plane was going to crash.

**Max POV**

The plane shuddered again, and it felt like a cheese grater was grinding acrossed my nerves. All had gone well getting everyone on the plane. But we were getting really close to Hawaii and we'd flown into a storm. I looked out the window again and when a flash of lightning lit the sky I saw water. I knew we were close to Hawaii, but my nerves were worn thin. The plane shuddered again, I couldn't take it anymore.

"Max?" Angel asked. I had a group of six kids with me. We were all in one section, but I was still fighting back hysteria and panic. The plane was crowded and I really wanted off.

"What sweetie?" Angel began to answer but suddenly the plane lurched forward, and there was a loud boom. To my horror I saw one of the planes engines burst into flames. Then the plane was barely being kept in the air.

Flight attendants were running up and down the aisles. I heard what they were telling people, the problem was worse than anyone had thought; the plane was going to crash right off the coast of Hawaii!

"Miss, please bring your siblings to the back of the plane with the rest of the passengers." An attendant told me.

I signaled for everyone to get up and follow me.

"How bad Angel?"

"The planes really going to crash." A note of hysteria crept into her voice.

"Okay try to find out what altitude we're at."

Angel closed her eyes and concentrated.

"When they open the doors so that people can parachute out, we'll be able to fly."

"Good!" I took off for the storage room. I met Willow's group on the way. I told her everything and she nodded. We would have only a limited amount of time to jump.

We go to the storage room, let everyone out, then we all ran down to the cargo hold. Inside we found Fang's group. I had my flock back, now I could figure out a plan to jump.

"Max!" Angel screamed right before the plane did a nose dive. We were all thrown everywhere. My head hit something so hard my ears started ringing.

"REPORT!" I yelled. We needed to jump, NOW!

I go various replies and Angel told me what she was trying to say. Everyone else on the plane had jumped. That meant we were free to jump.

"This way!" Sasha and Raven waved. They led us to the spot where everyone had jumped. I quickly told everyone that when they opened their wings it would hurt, and that they were to stay close to the water and head for land. Then I started to shove everyone out of the plane, until it was just Fang and I. We grabbed hands and jumped.

**Please review and tell me what you think. I'll try to update soon but I've been really busy lately so yeah.**


	37. Unexpected Discovery

Okay so here's the next chapter and enjoy

**Okay so here's the next chapter and enjoy. And just to let you know, I'm not making this incorporate Max Ride 4. I really didn't like that book. My opinion, James Patterson didn't put much effort into it.**

**Max POV**

For a second all I did was fall. The wind rushing past my face, making my hair fly everywhere, was exhilarating. There are very few things that can compare to flying and this would be one of those very few things; skydiving. I couldn't hear a thing because of the roar of the wind, or was that the plane crashing? I don't know.

Anyway, Fang's hand was ripped from mine as he unfurled his wings. I slowly opened mine up, but they were force out suddenly. OUCH! I keep telling myself no sudden unfurling yet what do I do, I suddenly unfurl my wings. My shoulders and the joints where my wings connected to me burned like fire.

Forcing my wings down and up against the air, I slowly began to rise. As I rose I turned to the fading sun. It'd just slipped below the horizon painting the clouds pinks, purples, and deep blues. Stars were already starting to come out in the east and the water down below was a dark blue to a black color.

My internal directional system or IDS, (that was my new name for it) said that land was east and about a half hour flight away, unless I wanted to fly really fast. So that's what I did. Hunching my shoulders I poured on the speed and passed my flock. I made it to the island in five minutes.

The beach was large, sandy, littered with white drift wood, dark, and abandoned. Perfect! But no, that would be just too easy right? In the next minute, there were helicopters surging over the island going out to sea, probably trying to locate the passengers, who couldn't fly, from the plane crash. To make matters worse, a spotlight traveling along the beach locked on me.

_Max get out of there! Those people are going to really question you._

_No Duh! You think I haven't already figured that out. Why else would I be running through the woods practically covering myself with scratches? To go and get caught, I don't think so. _

_Max…_

_Get out of my head Jeb._

"Shoot." I stumbled on a tree root that just suddenly appeared in front of me without warning, call me crazy but I know it moved, I did a summersault, and landed wrong on my right ankle.

"Darn it! Ouch!" Getting back up and running wasn't easy, I probably just sprained my ankle and knowing my flock, someone would make a fuss over it.

Now I know you're probably all thinking, why didn't you go warn your flock and take off somewhere? Well, my flock is smart and if I were to take off than someone in those helicopters would see me. My flock would either land in the water and act like victims or fly the other way and stay out of sight. Personally I would have choosen the second option; I don't do the role of victim well.

I finally stopped running when I came to a cliff, or rather a valley. On the other side was a waterfall, not one of those graceful types that everyone loves, but a loud, wet, and annoying spray of water. Trees surrounded the cliff and at the end of the valley, which wasn't very big, the land flattened out and an exit was formed for the river. The bottom of the valley is what ended up catching my attention though, there was a building there.

It was one story and shaped like a maze with a lot of branching hallways. There were many lights on but they didn't cast a large glow due to the amount of trees that covered the place. It was brick but painted a greenish grey to blend in with the surroundings. In the front of the building, an area had been fenced off and cleared of trees and extra vegetation.

SNAP!

Whirling around I heard another snap, closer this time. Someone or something was coming! Scanning the area, I spotted a large tree and began to climb it as fast as I could without making much noise. I was on the third layer of branches when three men stepped into my line of sight on the right.

They were clad in camo cloths, with army boots and guns in their belts. They were also tall, muscular, and looked like male models. My senses went on high alert.

"I don't see why we can't go grab some of the survivors from the pane crash. They would be good specimens and everyone else would write them off as having drowned." Said the guy in the middle. His voice was thick, velvety, and eraser like.

"I know what you mean. But if we disobey orders than well…" The guy on the right said.

"I know why we can't grab people randomly again. It's because the director is afraid that Max and the Flock will figure something out. Honestly they can't be _that_ smart." Muttered the last guy.

I would show them who wasn't smart.

I was about to jump down on the three and smash their heads in when Jeb chimed in.

_Max stop and think. If you beat them up than the people in the building will know that someone knows about them._

_Fine. But just to let you know, you're getting a punch in the face when I get back for stopping me._

_Then I'll be sure to be away on business that day. Now think about that building for a second. Who do you suppose is in there?_

I stopped and thought while I watched the three men walk away. The building was secluded where no one else could easily find it. Guards were walking around that wanted to kill people or use them for something, and those same guards had eraser like qualities.

DUH MAX! It was an Itex facility.

_Right Max._

_Shut up Jeb._

Then it hit me, I was right outside an Itex building and my flock would be flying around. They probably had spies everywhere. Oh crap!

**Review, I love it when you guys give me your opinions. I've got two more weeks of school, so after that I should be able to update more often.**


	38. Hide and Seek

**So yeah finally updating. Thanks for the reviews and all. Here's the next chapter. **

**Fang POV**

I stole a glance at Max and saw a familiar spark come into her eyes. In the next second she was gone. One of these days I would have to clock her and see how fast she really flew. Knowing Max she probably wanted to get to one of the islands quicker and scout ahead. No problem, unless she got into trouble, that just made it easier for the rest of us with how big the flock had gotten and all.

Looking around, all of the dark things popped out at me. The water, which would probably be fairly warm, looked deadly. The sky, with all of its stars shining, blending seamlessly in with the water.

"Um Fang." Uno flew up on my right and was whipping his head around so fast he would end up with whip lash.

"What Uno?"

"Why did Max just fly towards a bunch of helicopters?"

"WHAT? WHERE?" I looked towards the direction that Uno pointed. It was the exact place that Max had taken off towards but I didn't see any lights or hear any motors. I held back a sigh of relief. "I don't see anything Uno."

"I do though. I can clearly see a bunch of red and white helicopters heading straight towards us."

I stared at Uno trying to decide if he was just pulling a good prank or if he was telling the truth. He was very antsy but determined. He looked ready to fight erasers. That wasn't Uno. So how then could he see helicopters when I couldn't? Maybe…

"Yo guys hold up!" I yelled. Once everyone stopped and I had their attention I began again. "I think Uno just discovered a new ability of his. He says that there are a bunch of helicopters heading our way. They are probably going to search for survivors of the plane crash which means that they will be quick and thorough."

Everyone turned quickly in the direction I was looking at and turned back.

"To make it a little easier to stay hidden we'll split up into the groups that we were in on the plane. The group that was with Max, Iggy and Eel will lead you guys. Keep heading towards the island but stay out of sight! We'll meet up on the western side of the island. If you come acrossed Max tell her."

We all split up and I took my group, Nudge, Coal, and Red, and we flew high above the helicopters and to the right. In the distance I saw the lights and heard the sounds of rapidly approaching helicopters. Uno was right; I wonder what exactly his new ability entitled?

We flew, silent and steady, until the helicopters all passed under us and were gone. "Okay guys, shift a little more to the right and keep your eyes peeled for the island."

**Max POV**

No, no, no, no, no! This could NOT be happening. Erasers all over the place, my flock flying around, and an Itex facility in the middle of everything. I mean for crying out loud, we just can't get a break can we.

I made sure no other erasers were going to randomly pop out of no where, then climbed out of the tree I'd taken shelter in. I ran away from the building as fast as I dared. Thick vegetation slapped my face, arms, and legs, spraying me with a million droplets of water. Soon I was soaked and frantic. I HAD to find my flock. I desperately wanted to take out that building and every eraser, flyboy, and X that were in it, but my flock's safety was more important.

I ran and ran and ran until my lungs started to burn. I couldn't take off, or I might have been seen. I was running east, I would make a big circle and hopefully run into my flock along the way.

Finally I made it to a sandy beach. Waves crashed in a frenzy onto the shore and the wind was picking up. The storm that had crashed the plane was finally arriving to the island. The constantly swaying trees made an annoying background noise and I no longer heard any noises from birds. It was still dark, which made running in the sand along the tree line a little more difficult.

"Where are you guys?" I mumbled. Suddenly something dropped down from a tree right in front of me. It was long, black, and slithered.

"Ahh!" I jumped back, opened my wings, and took off. I HATED snakes. I could deal with blood thirsty erasers, but snakes… they just all needed to die.

"Max!"

To my right I saw four silhouetted figures flying towards me. I landed and they followed suit. Blade stood with Sasha, Gazzy, and Star.

"Oh my gosh, there you are. Where's everyone else?" I asked as Star and Gazzy came to stand by me.

"We split up. Uno apparently discovered a new ability. He saw all of the search and rescue helicopters before anyone else. Fang told us to split up into the groups we were in on the plane so it would be easier to stay undetected. Iggy and Eel took your group. And what were you screeching about?" Blade explained.

My mind went numb for a second. Splitting up would make it easier for everyone to remain undetected… but that didn't matter with erasers flying around. It would only lessen their chances of getting out of a fight alive or not being caught.

"We're all supposed to meet on the west side of the island…" Sasha began. "Are you okay Max?"

"Crap, crap, no. We've got to get to the east side of the island." I took off running and heard the soft pounding of feet as they followed.

"Why are we running? Why don't we just fly?" Gazzy asked, behind me and to my right.

"Because there's an Itex facility hidden on this island and erasers are everywhere." I let that bit of info sink into their heads as they all picked up the pace with me. "We've got to find everyone else, and get off this island before anyone discovers we're here. Once we're away… then we'll decide if we want to come back prepared and blow the place up."

We ran and soon caught sight of Willow, Charm, Ice, and Trent. I told them our slight, okay so not so slight, problem and they agreed with my second and a half thought up logic. And of course, because we just couldn't have _one_ easy task, it began to rain. Then came the thunder and lightning and the clouds that obliterated any source of light that we got naturally.

It also seemed that, even though we ran half on the beach and half off, we tripped more than usual from the amount of vegetation. Finally we got to the east side of the island and settled in a rocky outcropping that provided a good view of the sky and land for a couple miles each way. I got a break when we discovered that Cammie, Sky, Sprinkle, and Raven had taken shelter in the outcropping. So now I had three fifths of my flock back.

The outcropping sheltered us from most of the rain and wind, and even though I knew it was a bad idea, I flew out twice to look for my missing flock members.

**Fang POV**

Come on Max, where are you?

We were about a minute away from the west beach when out of the corner of my eye I saw Nudge stop and spin.

"Nudge what is it?" I quickly looked at the sky. I wanted to get to the island, the wind was already picking up and it was just starting to sprinkle. Coal and Red came back and hovered three feet above me.

"I don't know, I just thought I saw something. Maybe it was just a bird trying to find shelter from the storm, or maybe it was just a lone cloud…"

I stopped listening to Nudge trying to figure out what she saw, because in the distance six large figures approached us. They grew too big for birds and they were too small for clouds. CRAP!

"Guys fly now! We got erasers tailing us." I turned around, dove towards the water, made sure Nudge, Coal, and Red were following, and started to fly as fast as possible towards the island. I didn't want to have to fight erasers out in the open over an ocean that was beginning to look like a whirlpool.

But erasers, come on! They were everywhere weren't they? We just couldn't get a break.

**So please review and I'll update as soon as I can. **


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